| Hi Rollerskaters,
a couple of weeks ago I participated as Rollerskater at the Hot LaWa Contest in Freiburg, Germany, organized by Bernhard. He convinced me that, after
years of looking into the forum, I should tell the people that there is still another Rollerskater who is still skating Vert-Contests. So, here comes my story and some pictures of my skates:
I started skating eight wheelers - I don't know it exactly - maybe 1989/1990. The funny thing is that I started with Inline-Skates! The reason for this was that in my youth I harmed both ankles due to street skateboarding. After a break of 2 or 3 years I got some
Sunshine inline-skates which I tested for a surf/snowboard shop. I began vert skating maybe 1992 and one week before a
Rollerskate-Contest in Mannheim, Germany, my inline-skates broke apart (in this time the material was not as good as today). I met many of the Rollerskaters in Mannheim (Rene Hulgren, Klaus Dieter Waltner, Olaf Hennig, Beule, people from all over the place - all laughing about my inline-skates......in the future almost all of them converted...). They convinced me to built my own
stable Rollerskates. From this point on I was on Rollerskates - I never changed back ;-)! My favorite places to skate, as I lived in Germany: Mannheim skatepark (closed a long time ago), Green Ramp,
(Karlsruhe), Adelberg (Halfpipe still there?), Dome closed
(Mönchengladbach), i-Punkt (old location closed, Hamburg),
Railslide closed? (Frankfurt), Eindhoven (Holland), etc. The last 3 years I lived in Zürich, Switzerland. 2 weeks before I moved to Zürich the city tore down the skatepark!! Therefore, I skated in the skatepark
Baar at Zug (closed last year). Another location was the
Landihalle, Basel, which also closed this year but they want to open it in another location. I think the vert-ramp is still not built up. In Zürich they want to built a freestyle park - without vert-ramp. No comment. Maybe I am getting old , but if I skate, I only skate vert-ramp. I attached some pictures of my rollerskates. I
often read the discussions about the development of rollerskates but I share the opinion of Bernhard that there are a few people inventing, building, constructing rollerskates thereby forgetting skating! I do not believe that you improve very much with better skates if you are only skating little. My skates are now about 11 years old. I never changed or took them apart, even I did never check the screws in all this years, except when I change the wheels! Spent your time on your rollerskates, not under them! If some has an idea how I will get every skate 1 kg lighter, than, maybe, I will take some tools into my hands.....Technical information: Trucks: Indy 101,
Baseplate: part of a ski, cell blocks, ice hockey shoes, that's it.
I am still affiliated to skateboarding. Due to conviction by Chris Eggers I started Slalom-Skateboarding and I have a great time with this type of skateboarding. Also, here in Switzerland we do some impressive Skate-Boardercrosses within the cities. Skating obstacles, curves,
etc. racing against 2 other people, great fun!
In 3 Months I am moving to Vancouver,
Canada, for a couple of years. I already visited the website of rollergirl! It seems that there are no
vert-ramps in Vancouver? Is that true? I hope someone will send me some addresses of skateparks in Vancouver with vert-ramps. (greetings to rollergirl - I will call you if I arrive in Vancouver!). Also, I attached some other pictures. You can see obviously which ones I slamed and which not ;-)! Other pictures can be seen under (green ramp jam 2002 at sk8mag.de) In the moment I
am skating less: One time every couple of weeks! I
hope I will find a vert-ramp nearby Zürich. Maybe it is getting better in Vancouver. Regards to all of you, especially to some old Rolerskaters like Klaus Dieter, Olaf, Beule, Rene, Tim etc.
30 and older - and still coping! (regards to Chris Eggers!! ;-))))
So long, skate and have fun!
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