Location: Baar
Photographer: Mike Hammer
Text provided in August 2003 by Daniel Knopf, Vertical Rollerskater
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| Rider: Daniel Knopf Location: Baar Photographer: Mike Hammer |
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 was injured at 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 those days the material was not as good as is is today). I met many of the Rollerskaters in Mannheim (Rene Hulgreen, 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 to inline skates). They convinced me to built my own stable Rollerskates. From this point on I was on Rollerskates - I never changed back ;-)!
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| Rider: Daniel Knopf Location: Baar Photographer: Mike Hammer |
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 installed in the new location. In Zürich they want to build a freestyle park - without vert-ramp. No comment. Maybe I am getting old, but when I skate, I only skate vert-ramp.
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| Rider: Daniel Knopf Location: Baar Photographer: Mike Hammer |
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 and meanwhile are forgetting to skate! 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 ...
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| Daniel Knopf's skate side view |
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| Daniel Knopf's skate side view |
I am still affiliated to skateboarding. Chris Eggers convinced me to to start slalom skateboarding and I have a great time with this type of skateboarding. Also, here in Switzerland we do some impressive skate boarder crosses within the cities. Skating obstacles, curves, etc. Racing against 2 other people, great fun!
In 3 Months I will be moving to Vancouver, Canada, for a couple of years. I've 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 when I arrive in Vancouver!). More pictures of me can be found at the Sk8Mag.de report on the Green Ramp Jam 2002 At 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 Rollerskaters like Klaus Dieter, Olaf, Beule, Rene, Tim etc.
30 and older - and still coping! (regards to Chris Eggers! ;-))))
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| Daniel Knopf's skate bottom view |
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| Daniel Knopf's skate front view |