Girls-only sessions

Today I would like to talk about a specific topic—girls-only events. Why they are important? What is our and our friends experience in these?

What exactly are girls-only events? These are organized sessions in parks (and other places), where girls and women of any age can participate under the surveillance of a mentor or a coach. Once, “ladies’ nights” were also organized in Riga. They took place in Monsterpark, G-tiim and also in Spot center periodically from 2014 to 2018. The riders were not divided, skateboarders, inliners and BMXer, everybody rode together because it was often challenging secure enough visitors for the event to be profitable or at least not a negative income for the skate park, which is understandable.

Reading the previous activity in the comments section, I kind of understand what it is all the fuss about. Girls’ evenings organized in this way certainly do not represent the rough, unaccustomed side of the skateboard lifestyle, but does everyone really have to learn how to skate in a barn or alone in their own micro-rajon? “Girls only” events are, first of all, a place to meet, get to know each other, find someone to chat with and then go to your ‘sessions’ together. In such joint sessions, you want to try tricks that you don’t know yet, because you see that someone else is doing them and that is exciting. Also, there’s a more similar level of skating around. This fosters progress and forms a sense of community. Of course, there are girls for whom this may be an unusual event, or someone might say that it is not “true”, but maybe it is their only chance to escape from everyday life, to get rid of thoughts and do something that keeps them happy and in shape? Also, the infrastructure is there, so why not take advantage of this opportunity?

But why only girls? In my opinion, a simple thing like shyness or the fear of starting from scratch is completely uncomfortable in an unusual environment where there are only guys. Girls’ evenings make it easier to build some basic confidence, it’s the first step in getting to know skating as such, to know if you like it or not before being called a poser or someone yells “do a kickflip”. So, to speak, without unnecessary tension. Learn how to behave in a skate park, so that during a public ‘session’ a fast-flying skater boy does not accidentally knock you out because you are in his way. Basically, learn to feel the field. This is a way to promote skating culture among women, especially if it in its infancy.

I am not saying that everyone should be singled out. The more often we skate together, the faster we get used to each other.

The question now is whether the “girls only” session should be resumed.

In Berlin’s indoor skate hall for example, after a couple of ‘test run’ events, it has been decided to hold the girls’ events as a regular event – every Tuesday.

I am glad to see that Kablys skate park in Lithuania is also experimenting with this format. Here’s what they had to say about it:

So first of all we decided to organize the first ever “Girls Can Skate” jam in Lithuania like 3 years ago. Beginning was hard, girls were too shy to skate in front of an audience.

Later we had a lot of girls who were attending our camps and school, so we felt that it would be cool to organize a little event for girls only and get them to meet each other. Step by step these Girls skate events became our tradition and we believe that they really help to promote the Skater-girls community.
Girls loving it and we see more & more skater girls starting to skate and engaging to the community

Actually our next goal is to organize the biggest skater girl event (meet), it is scheduled on 12th of March 2022. Hope to see girls from all around Lithuania and Latvians too!

Thanks to Estonian sisters who contacted me after the first article and briefly discussed the situation in Estonia and here. I noticed that they, too, after a few successful experiments, set up “girls-only” events as a regular format in Tartu and Tallinn. So I ask the manager of Tartu Skateboarding School, Liidia Maier, to share her thoughts and experience:

Why did you decide to make a girls-only event?
Liidia – Skateboarding has historically been a men-dominated sport. Yet many girls and women would like to get into skateboarding, but it has been hard for them.

Most of the skateboarding events in Estonia have been all about the boys. Some of the events have included a small number of girls, but none have been organized just for girls. This idea of a girls-only event was in our minds for a long time, and this year with my friend Kätlin Kikkas, we saw an opportunity to make it happen.

The goal of our event was to bring all types of girls and women together and create an encouraging environment where they could enjoy skateboarding and inspire each other. Age and skills were not important to us. What mattered was a desire to develop oneself.

We were grateful to see so many girls, mums, and women just enjoying themselves.

Shoutout to our girls Paula Viidu, Julia Kaldalu, Sandra-Merys Tasa, Merje Reisenbuk, Johanna Oden and Eneli Ige, who also were involved in organizing this event!

Why is it important for girls and the community?
Liidia – Throughout the years, working with kids in our local Tartu Skateboarding School, I saw that girls usually don’t feel comfortable skating with the boys. The chemistry of the boys and girls is just so much different.

If you have a little skatepark and too many people, it feels intimidating to be a girl or beginner between a big bunch of guys who have skated for years.

We are constantly afraid that we are in the way of someone, and we are someone who shouldn’t be at the skatepark. I think that a lot of beginners know this feeling.

Since there are not a lot of girls skateboarding, to bring them all together you need to organize events and sessions for them. Then they will feel more encouraged and a lot more girls will enjoy it. Because right now I feel that in our local communities we don’t have that natural flow of girls.

In conclusion, it looks like this kind of event could be the first push to start the movement. I believe that the rest depends on our (ladies’) own wishes and initiative. If there is a demand for this type of event, it will be evident in attendance, then there will also be an more offers, because in my experience, skate parks are welcoming to ladies. As to why we have to split and can’t skate together, we can each think about what we can do so that we are not afraid or embarrassed of each other and that coexistence becomes commonplace.

From words to deeds! Let’s try an experiment. Is that what is needed in Riga now? December 30 The Spot Center from 20:00 to 22:00 Girls Only (skate & inline jam). Your task is to come.

Merry Christmas as well.

Recap from Action Sports Workshops for Women 2018.

Photos by Liidia Maier

December 6, 2021January 6, 2023

VOID: THOUGHTS ON LINES

I recently read an interview with Tom Knox about lines. Tom is famous for his unique approach to lines execution. His lines are long, creative and complicated. He can skate through the city, perform 5 tricks and then finish with a more difficult maneuver. As he himself said in that interview, “For me, lines usually will start on the last trick and I’ll take a step back and figure it out from the beginning.” He comes up with a trick to do and then looks at what else is around that spot and builds his line in reverse. It’s all interesting and you can read it yourselves.

What seemed particularly interesting to me is that he mentioned that he almost never starts lines with flips on flat. “I don’t like to start lines with flatground tricks. Especially a two trick line, it’s not me at all.” It seemed interesting why he thinks so. Because starting a line with a flip is sort of a popular activity in Latvia. This question intrigued me. I decided to take a look how often world pros do flip tricks on flat in beginning of their lines.

I watched a couple parts that I think are good and counted how many skaters start their lines with flip tricks on flat. Andrew Reynolds makes one line that starts with a flip trick on flat in his Baker 3 part. Jerry Hsu’s Bag of Suck, which was voted the best parts ever on instagram includes one line that starts with a flip trick. Mark Suciu’s Verso, an 11-minute part, has around 23 lines, and not a single one starts with a flip tricks on flat. Bobby Puleo doesn’t do that to much. Well, in Static 2 he did one line with a nollie heel in the middle of an intersection. Marc Johnsosn’s Fully Flared part also saw no such lines. Tiago doesn’t do that either.

But still, especially nowadays, a lot of people do flip tricks in the beginning of their lines before hitting something else. It is important to note that such lines are mostly filmed long lens. I really want to attribute these long lens, usually two-trick lines to Supreme vids. Usually, Sean Pablo makes a flip trick on flat and then does something heavier (the main trick in the line). But how important is that flat trick? It does make that clip cooler, but does it really count as a proper line? If we had to count down best lines ever made, will we even remember a two trick line, where the first trick is on flatground? In a line as such, a flip trick on flat is a kind of warm-up before a banger. It creates an impression that the skater is simply cruising: throwing random flip flicks before a good trick at the spot. Bobby De Keyzer does a line like that in his Quasi part. Perfect flatground kickflip followed by a bs bigspin over a gap. The flatground kickflip is insanely good by the way. The fact that you can’t see it in full also looks dope. The filmer might not have known it would happen. De keyzer cruises and does something to get hyped before the gap. But is it a line? Kind of yes. But would he film it with a fish eye? It seems to me that when a line is filmed with a fisheye it sort of positions itself as a proper line. A long lens angle makes it seem more spontaneous and natural. There is a feeling that he is just skating around and then does something heavy. These types of line require a name of their own. My propositions: A Lifestyle line? A supreme line?

So, in lines like that (long lens two-trick lines with first trick on flatground) a flat ground trick seems cool. But if there’s a fish on the camera and we’re filming a proper line now, that flip trick seems more like an excuse for a line and doesn’t make a good line. I like the way Greg Hunt talked about the lines, specifically about one of Tom Penny’s lines, “A good line is like a good story: it has a really good beginning. It keeps you interested, and then it has an amazing ending.” For the flip trick to count as a good start of the story, it needs to be performed with Stevie Williams’ skills and charisma. His tricks on flat are bangers and they keep thing interesting. Or shift it like PJ.

I guess not everyone has that kind of pop or style. Therefore, it might be wiser to try a different approach to lines.

It seems to me that line has to connect something together. A line must connect at least spot A and spot B, something else can happen in the between if one desires. Of course, there can be a million variations of this approach, but connecting is, in my opinion, the main criterion for a good line. The skater does two tricks on two obstacles. The first trick is hard and if the second is harder and there’s something in between, then, it might be a good line. Within the Latvia skateboarding realm, Niks Kolosovskis probably made the best line ever in the old Skateradio video. Kickflip bs 5-0 down a ledge, nollie fs 180, ss ollie over some blocks and ss flip bs tail. Here Greg Hunt’s description of a good line fits very well. However, I would like to mention that Nick made his line in Prague, which is a very important fact for the line theme in our Latvian context. We don’t have too many As and Bs to connect. At least not so much. How many spots do we have, in a natural street environment where we could connect at least two ledges. LNB, of course, is a good spots for lines. What else? Ausekla steps, followed by the Jersey barrier. There you can do a crooked grind and a wallie maybe. You can do some tricks up 3 and down 4 at Hanzas perons. Well, we definitely have something, but not much.

It rarely seems like we have 2 spots in one. If there is a kicker or a ledge in Riga, it is already a miracle; a grace of skate gods. How dare you ask for more! Be happy that you at least have some A spots. Probably that is why there are a lot of two-trick lines with the first one on flatground.

In the end, this article is more of an observation and analysis, and is not here to teach you how to skate and live. I have filmed a line this year that starts with 5 flatground flip tricks, and I am proud of it (you will see it in the next rajon video). But perhaps this information will enter our collective subconscious, and the next time we want to film something, we will look around and consider more possibilities in our surroundings.

December 4, 2021December 4, 2021

NOVEMBER LINKS

As we are entering the winter level, more and more clips come out from the summer stacks. November already gave us two vids from the Estonian side. and probably we will see more. Lithuanian homies going to drop something for sure. Latvians might join as well. We ourselves are working on two small videos at the moment, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile let’s take a quick look at November’s batch of summer footy.

Speaking of illegal activities. Its never to late to brake the law.

Maxlas vice president Denčik put out a mix of his clips from summer. Almost all spots of Riga saw his bigspin flip.

Roberts Grandans posted his summer clips too.

Never thought someone could skate that huge quarter pipe wall over at Miera darz, especially do a backside disaster on it. Also, some nice clips of our man Fricis in this recap video of Smoke Beer Skateboards trip around Latvia in summer of 2017.

Lastly, check out the clips from Tallinn’s gang.

Have a nice one.

November 25, 2021

“Ou, lähme streeti!” – Full VIDEO

Remember how videos were made back in the days? They were VX, had good music and a crew of personalities, the more eccentric the crew, the better. Vids also had obligatory skits before parts and some hijinx of course. Meelis Erm’s new vid, “Ou, lähme streeti!” has all of those classic features. Moreover, it is a strictly Estonian flick with all spots and music being local. The coolest part is that the crew doesn’t try to be something they are not, concentrating on what they have and making the most of it. And of course like in any good classic video, the ender is heavy. MJ style! Enjoy the vid and props to Meelis & co.

Read more about the video.

November 23, 2021November 23, 2021

Motherfuckin’ Berlin

First of all we would like to give a big shout out to VLND burger and Kaifuun Network for making cool stuff happen in Estonian skate scene. Keep it coming guys!

Past August, Estonian homies, who are always keen on traveling, went on a week long skate trip to Berlin. Crew consisted of Kristo Õismets, young guns Allan Raudsepp and Jeremy Vaask (try to tell them apart), and Siim Sild on the cam.

Do Germans even know where Estonia is? And what about the Baltics? Answers to these questions and more about the trip bellow in a quick Q/A with Siim, the author of the vid.

The title of the video makes an impression that you guys were a bit pissed off during the trip.
Well, if you watch the clip it’s something that a random drunk dude says right after he lands a kickflip in the middle of the night on Kristo’s board. But yeah, we were a bit pissed off that we couldn’t really skate that much because of the shitty weather, so it made sense to call the video like that. We had to do many return trips to spots that we had already been and we didn’t make it to some spots that we were really hoping to skate because of that. I don’t even know how many times everybody had just finished warming up and I had set up the camera and then after a few tries it started raining again. It was pretty mental.

Oh, even when we were like, ‘Fuck it, we just want to skate, let’s go to that Nike SB indoor park’, we were told at the door that because of Covid restrictions they’re full, and only letting in a small number of people that have made a reservation online. So, we ended up just sitting outside and drinking beers. And the icing on the top was that the following week it was sunny and 26 degrees…

Berlin seems like a trending destination, right? Seems like a lot of stuff going on there. How you did you guys like it there?
People are really open minded in Berlin and it’s a really diverse place. I think I’ve been there a couple of times now on different occasions and I’ve enjoyed it every single time. The others feel the same. People are minding their own business and aren’t so concerned with skaters making small scratches on some benches. There’s way weirder and sketchier stuff than skateboarding happening all the time haha. Personally, I couldn’t really skate because of a huge bruise I managed to get during Simple Session just a few days before our trip. So most of the skating I did was in my head which means that a second skate trip to Berlin definitely needs to happen.

You visited some of the popular skate spots there. Which did you like best?
I guess the most famous spots we skated were Warschauer Straße benches, Tetris blocks and Kulturforum. Out of those three I guess it has to be Kulturforum, because it had the most variety and the surrounding buildings had a lot of spots too. Although it might be a bit “overskated” so it’s quite hard to find something that hasn’t gone down there before. We were actually skating at Kulturforum at the same time a bunch of US skaters. They were chilling in Berlin before heading to CPH Open. So we saw some bangers on the ledge and down the double set – like switch varial heel and stuff.

Do people in Berlin know about Estonia or the Baltics?
I can’t really answer that one, because I think most of the skaters in Berlin were chilling indoors and hiding from the rain during the week we were there, haha. But on the rare occasion we saw some skaters, it felt like yeah they know about us, the Baltic people.

What makes you think that?
I guess they’re good at geography.

Jeremy, Allan, Kristo and Siim in Tallinn during VX Weekend where they presented the vid

Follow Kaifuun Network on Insta
Get a bite of VLND burger

November 11, 2021February 11, 2022

Spot under the sun

When Gaba told me that I had to start a blog about women skate scene in Latvia, I thought it was a bunch of BS. I don’t associate myself with a skater, although I love this sport. I can’t do a kickflip, and if in your opinion that means this article is not worth reading, then, do what you got to do.

Those who don’t know my background, I started as a fixed gear rider. I participated in both local and international contests, broke bones and same as others had an asphalt fever. Also, I founded #SHEFIX, and SHE FIX developed extreme sports movement among Latvian women and was also a part of European movement, around some ten years ago. Now I just love to cruise on my board, film and take photos. I finally learned how to time photos on my film camera.

However, from time to time I end up in situation or discussions that take me 10 years back. Just last week we talked with Liene for hours, watched old photos and video and ask the question, “What happened to the movement?” So, one morning I thought about Gaba’s idea and understood that there are a few topics I could write about and include all girl skaters who wish to say something. In a way we could make these articles together. DM

Alice Smith @macba – Video still from CYT project. Filmed by Arturs Lurinš

Olympic games raised a question, why Latvian skater girls are so passive, why nothing happens in the women scene?

Arts says that young girls coming to skate school wish to become like Sky Brown, and probably in some 6 years they will if they don’t give up. I also went to skate school same as Emilia and Laura. It is a safe space that helps to get into the skatepark environment. You learn about the obstacles and get the grasp of how to use them.

However, why is it so passively quiet?

Girls skate chat used to have 30 people at one point, you couldn’t add more people even. Have 30 of us ever showed up for a session? No! Maybe just two or three.

This year during the rainy August days, we finally came together a few times and filmed a couple tricks. The shame has been overcome. Yes, we won’t do any flip tricks down stairs, the speed we are rolling in is symbolic and kickflip is “sketchy”, but we want to share what we got. Despite women skate boarding in Latvia has been underground for years, finally we want to get out in the sun and take our space under it with shuve-its, 180s, bonelesses, manuals and sketchy kickflips. We want to take the space. Learn to feel more comfortable in public events, in this testosterone high sport, pull your self together and get on that board even if the legs are shaking and you feel awkward. Of course not all of us feel like that. Shout out to Uma!

I believe this feeling of awkwardness in this environment is main reason for passivity. Bringing back all girls nights would be a solution? Maybe it is all in our heads?

Without any specific solutions in mind, I am looking forward to next summer because I know that we can go on our own trip, find our own spots, suitable to our skill level, film our own edits and most importantly, without thinking too much, do what we like to do.

P.s. Please share your best ideas for winter skate spots! We are not so many to threat spots’ accessibility. 🙂

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021

“Ou, lähme streeti!”

“Ou, lähme streeti!” or “Let’s hit the streets!” is a new video offering from Estonian skate scene. Filmed and edited by our mate Meelis Erm, the video will premiere on 12th of November during Tallinn’s VX weekend and after that it will hit the interwebs. Right now you can check out the trailer, and short interviews with the 5 main guys who will have full parts in the movie.

Meelis Erm

You are always on some video project, right? Last year it was Unity. In 2019 you were in my vid, Viss Safe. Before that it was Pernova 2. Where do you think your hype for filming parts comes from?
Yes, that’s right. That’s a really good question! I can assume that I like pushing myself and that’s what filming a street part takes.

How was it to regain the creative control over your footage? Previous years both me and Rainer edited your clips.
It was about time! Filming with you guys was less worrying because back then I only had to focus on skateboarding. But this time I had to figure the sh*t out with my camera which was actually a fun process. It was an opportunity to show my creative side.

I guess you initiated the whole thing, right? Did you have to hype everyone up and all that. Was it easy?
It was overall just having fun but at the same time I had to work with shitty technics. I did initiate the whole thing because I had the camera and all I needed to do is point my camera at someone – That’s how videos become. It went pretty smooth, I just needed to hit some guys up, tell them that we are going in the streets and pick them up with my Toyota Corolla. I guess they were already hyped about filming some tricks in the streets.

Meelis tweaking an early one with the part time filmer Raul Urberg behind. Photo: Lauri Täht

Tell about the crew? How did it come together?
So basically the main crew was based on Docka team plus the fedo master – Jaagup. In the spring time we got to film with Jeremy a lot as well. These clips turned out to become Jeremy’s Welcome to the Reede shop team video.

Who’s has your favorite part in the video in your opinion?
Probably my favorite part was Johannes’s. Because it has really great Estonian OG rap song behind it. I really had nice time filming with Johannes! Everything he did was easy for him or just slamming hard. He’s a champ though, taking those slams every time. All I can say is Johannes is a smart little guy. Also, I’m really really hyped about how Nils’s part turned out as well!

Estonian OG rap sounds interesting. You have a lot of Estonian tunes in this, right?
I think I’m hoping to survive in the Internet and not get taken down because of music copyrights lol. I really liked the process of going through so much of an old and new Estonian songs! I actually didn’t know if the idea of editing with Estonian songs even work out. But I think it adds some kinda spice in the video.

Even though it’s Baltic-size, it’s still a kinked hubba: 50-50 chance you are getting out of this safely. Photo: Lauri Täht

Johannes Teder

How old are you and how long have you been skating?
I’m 13 and I have been skating for around 2,5 years.

Is this going to be your first part? Did you like filming a part?
Yes, this is my first part and it was very fun to film.

How was it filming with older guys?
It was cool, they gave me tips and motivation so definitely yeah.

Do you have a favorite Estonian video?
“Kaksteist minutit ja seitseteist sekundit”

What do you this is cooler full videos or Instagram edits?
Full videos are cooler because instagram kinda makes the quality worse and is not so enjoyable to watch than full videos.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 👹 (@johannesteder)

Nils-Erik Vesberg

You like to do some creative stuff it seems. What and who inspires you to skate like that?
When I was little, I really liked the almost cheese and crackers video. This may have some influence. Creativity surprises people, they cant expect it usually. It is cool to watch, that’s why I try to be creative too.

A didn’t understand a word in your day in a life vid, but I noticed that you were good at cooking. Are you a chef?
Yes, I am a chef. Creativity comes in handy in this field as well. I am working at VLND burger at the moment. Super nice and friendly people there and we also make world class burgers. Shout out to VLND burger people.

Nils a bs 360 on some natural street kickers. Photo: Lauri Täht.

How was it filming with Meelis? Is he a strict filmer? Makes people redo their tricks and stuff?
Filming with Meelis was super fun. We are really good friends, so no pressure at all. He is always down to film and has the patience to wait until shit gets done. It is his first movie, so we both learned a lot this summer. I filmed most of his tricks actually.

In the teaser there’s some random dude stops you mid line. What happened there?
Yeah. So we were filming a line for a quite long time. I was pretty pissed already, but decided to have one last go at it. And when I started to skate down the road, the guy jumped in front of me. He yelled : “Oi kurrwwa” or something like that. So I naturally thought he is some random drunk guy. I started yelling back at him like, “What the fuck are you doing”. And then… some pregnant lady jumped out from behind him and started yelling also. She was like, “You were riding straight at me!!! My baby could die.” But the guy was still being aggressive, so I told them that they shouldn’t have acted the way they did and everything would have been ok. I wouldn’t have crashed into them and killed their baby or whatever Yeah, that pretty much ruined the vibe, never got the clip.

Are you stocked on your part?
Yeah, kinda stoked. Every year in spring I am thinking that this summer I am going to film a part, but it usually doesn’t go that way. But this year we managed to actually do it. So I am stoked for that. Next year even better fo sho!

Jakob Aruvald

Where are you originally from and how did you decide to move to Estonia?
I’m originally from Canada. I ended up here on a journey to meet the Estonian half of my family – wasn’t really planning to stay here for any longer than 2 weeks, but here we are.

How is the local scene in Estonia different compared to where you are from?
The scene over here is much smaller and less divided, so it feels like we’re all a part of one big family, while in Toronto the scene is much bigger, so it feels more divided (not in a bad way).

Who is your favorite Estonian skater?
Raul – A great skateboarder with a great attitude.

Every time I met you, you were blasting front blunts on ledges. Are you going to have any fs blunts in your part?
Aha, I don’t believe so, but it’s still one of my favorite tricks.

Do you think Estonians will ever skate as good as Canadians? Do they even have a chance?
Hard to say, but Estonians are not to be underestimated, so it’s very possible.

Jaagup Mägi

How old are you and how long have you been skateboarding?
I’m 360 months old, been skating for about 270.

I remember I saw you skate some rocks once on Instagram. Have you filmed a lot of unconventional stuff for this video? And does Tallinn have a lot of weird spots for someone with approach like yours to film on?
In a sense all my skating is unconventional, cause I’m not very technically able, and conventional skating is quite technical these days. As a kid, I was horrible at sports and I still throw like a sissy, so I’m surprised myself that I can somehow express myself entertainingly through the movement of my body and rollerboard (I think a much more accurate word for our favorite toy/tool). But my limitations push me to be creative, so I concentrate on that. Maybe it’s the same everywhere, but it has seemed that everything has been skated dry and nothing new is built, but we keep on finding ways to reappropriate the city.

Meelis told me that your trick of choice was the caveman. What’s your favorite caveman variation and which was your favorite to film for this video?
Yeah, caveman is my ollie. I cant call out a favorite though, too many good feelin’ ones.

What was a typical filming day filming for this video?
Riding around in Mell’s car with a vague idea where we wanna go, often finding something different on the way. Depending on who knows what when the first beer is cracked.

Did filming for this ever felt serious to you? What was the overall vibe of sessions like?
We do get into battles sometimes, but no annoying tantrums luckily. The vibe has been high freq’. Almost no days where we didn’t get any clips, so that already has kept the morale raised. And we’re all super cool so…

Cover Photo: Imbi Sõber

November 3, 2021

Chill day at Imanta

In simple days of our youth, skaters used more option to show their clips. Now everyone mostly films stuff on their phones and puts on instagram without thinking twice. But back in the day it was different. On one side of the skate video spectrum skaters could showcase their skills in a trick tip format. It was a quick, low effort type of production. On the other side of the spectrum you had full length skate videos. These require more effort and patience, and nowadays not a lot of skaters dedicate themselves to this. Somewhere between the two lies another format of skate video production—a skatepark montage. It is not as complicated as a long street video, and not as mind-numbing as a trick tip. Typically a skatepark montage was filmed in one day with the whole crew skating one park.

Our main spot for one-day park montages back in the day was the OG Imanta skatepark.

Every time you got a Skype message, “let’s go film a park montage today”, you’d get excited for the day. All your friends get together and skate. The camera gets passed around. Everyone’s landing their tricks. Somehow on a days like these everything seemed perfect. Maybe filming was not as frequent and juiced you up. In any case, days of filming a park edit back then made sessions more special.

On our recent expedition to Imanta, we visited the new Imanta skatepark, and, on a nostalgic whim, filmed a one-day skatepark montage. Enjoy!

Stay sane everyone. Till later.

November 1, 2021November 1, 2021

October Links 2021

Aside from the 8 o’clock curfew, this year October was nice to us. We were granted a couple sunny days and got some filming done outside.

Also, October saw the release of few skate vids (and other things) which we briefly summarize for you in the link below. Enjoy!

Autumn Heel from our local pro, Linards Viksniņš! Photo by Nauris Dollins.

First of all, make sure to watch Clockwise Skateshop’s Halloween skate movie. The idea of a Halloween skate vid is as old as the Internet skate content goes, but this piece has a different angle to the classic dress-up skate video. The Clockwise team added elements of a horror flick which resulted in some bad acting. But bad in a good way. Must watch for sure.

Our homies from Liepaja Skrituldeli skate club posted a new video from their park called “Gangstersky“. Sick video with good skating. But. There’s no Kalns clips? Probably he didn’t film for this because he’s not a gangster. Looking forward to the next video with some Kalns action. Pankovsky, maybe?

If you skate in Riga, you have probably met Big Mac Destroyer. A Young and enthusiastic skate filmer from Imanta. Kid’s getting into the filming game, and his first big video called September came out, in the middle of October. As described by Big Mac himself, this is a video, Featuring your favorite Latvian skaters. Keep it up, Mac!

Tikari squad put out a short video featuring Edijs Plume cruising Riga. Filmed and edited by master Roberts Krums. The shit’s spontaneous as it always is with Barspin crew.

Instagram shout outs! This month we discovered two new Instagram accounts from Deep Latvian skate crews: Demtraitors from Rezekne and Dirty Kandava Skateboarding.

Meanwhile in Lithuania. Our Fully Ghetto homies posted something that looked like a teaser for their new video. Looking forward to that. #savefggangsters

Meanwhile in Estonia. A collective of young Tallinn skaters that go under the name Cold Exotic put out a new video. Don’t know much about these boys, but the look ambitious. More things coming for sure.

Estonia’s busiest filmer, Rainer Kaur, constantly puts out clips. His latest features Andris Kaldvee doing 28 tricks for his 28th birthday.

Back to Riga. We are going to have a local version of Brooklyn Banks soon thanks to Mind Work.

And, speaking of skateparks and bowls. Macis Ruiķis’ bowl project got second in the voting. The first ten projects get accepted, so it looks like Marcis won and we might get a bowl in Pargdaugava. Big thank you to all of you who voted and spread the word.

And that is it! Have a good day everyone, and make sure to check the last episode of the world’s best skateboarding show. Peace!

P.s. Stay tuned for the return of Top10.

October 19, 2021October 20, 2021

Uzvaras Skateparks

In the early 2000s Riga was not as skate friendly as it is today. Local skaters had to take advantage of any spots they could find. Skateboarder Mārcis Ruiķis had a paved parking space next to his house which seemed like a great place to built a skatepark. He got together with his friends and they started working.

First came the grind box. Then some banks and a funbox. More people took notice and contributed to the park. Soon it became the biggest skateparks in Riga and a central point for the skate scene. Even commercial contests were held there attracting massive crowds of people.

Now 20 years later, Mārcis decided to bring back life to Uzvaras skatepark. He applied for a Riga development project funding with a n idea to build a bowl there. Vote for the project via link bellow.

https://balso.riga.lv/projekti/agenskalna-betona-baseina-skeitparks-daleja-istenosana

p.s. Uzvaras skateparks had an official version a bit later. City place some concrete obstacles. Same style as the Ventspils skatepark. Marics recalls that all copings got stolen by the local bums.

Photo from Triecienspēks issue 2. – 06.2006.

Check our previous documentary about SKATETV