Tag: Roland Hoogwater

When I got invited to go on this trip I can’t tell you how excited I was. It was a chance to go and meet some of skateboarding’s new faces. Not random new faces but people that are part of an important wave in our culture. These people have names, names like Savannah Stacey Keenan, Lacey Baker, Josie Millard, Charlotte Hym and Sarah Meurle, the latter I was less excited to meet because I knew her.
God! All of them are probably cringing while reading this, I know I am while writing it. But they are all worthy of praise because they are doing something important. I saw Josie struggle a bit when we were at the bar and some people came up and presented her with a fresh possibly alcohol infused dose of praise. Not because she wasn’t thankful but because it can be shocking to the person that is being praised to see the people they influence. Her voice was saying “Thank you, I really appreciate it” and her eyes were saying “Should we go back and meet up with the others?”.
I was hyped because the hype is real and all of these girls are really cool human beings.

Charlotte is working on her Ph.D., she is studying the effects of the mother’s voice on newly born babies. Savannah is into geography and fashion, Josie besides riding on the board owns a seriously beautiful motorbike and ever since this trip she is obsessed with doing long handstands. Sarah is studying fine art in Sweden, during this trip, she told me she used to be a Christmas tree salesperson in Canada “The best “real” job I’ve ever had”. Finally, Lacey Baker is always painting, drawing and trying to have Gaga moments, which basically means listening to Lady Gaga together and singing along. What more could you wish for?

I don’t know, do you? There is more and if you want to delve deeper grab a copy of our Holiday issue at your local shop. Right now we are pleased to show you what went down on this trip to Paris. Enjoy!

And for our Youtube lovers click here.

Video by Augustin Giovanonni.
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
Photo by Conny Mirbach.

“Young kids grow older, parents are left with empty nests and new cities must be explored.”

Our video columnist Paul Herrmann moved away from his beloved “Franki” to join us in the streets of Berlin, thus this column can be seen as a goodbye to Frankfurt and its skaters.

Featuring:

Luis Waterkamp, Tim Thomas, Clemens Dembinski, Philipp Weil, Luis Kohl, Don Simonelli, Mario Ungerer, Julian Mack and American Max Schofer.

Text by Roland Hoogwater.

We are glad to be a part of Lucas Beaufort‘s “DEVOTED” documentary about skateboard media all over the globe. Next to Roland you have MJ, Skin Philips, Steve Berra, Patrick O’Dell and many more talking about the past, the now & the future.

 

 

It has been a while since a Skateboard Magazine from Europe released a full-length video project with the magazine at once. Our issue 61 comes with a 19-minute film, all filmed with a VX and Hi8. In times of Instagram and extremely fast ways of having your footage being released, we as a team got together and worked on this video for about four weeks.  Thaynan Costa, Hugo Maillard and Willem van Dijk came for a visit and every one of these guys killed it.

A big thank you to everyone involved, besides the lineup above this video features: Tjark Thielker, Timo Meiselbach, Nils Brauer, Jan Hoffmann, Paul Röhrs, Giorgi Armani, NSVC, Alex O’Donahoe, Peter Buikema, Deniz Bulgurcu, Daniel Pannemann, Roland Hoogwater, Valentin Cafuk, Alex Raeymaekers, Mats Edel, Jonas Heß & Danny Sommerfeld.

Filmed and edited by Peter Buikema.

Header-Photo by Henrik Biemer, Hugo Maillard BS Lipslide.

 

 

PLACE_antihandshake_security4
In our ‘anti-handshake’ article, we face the fact that not everyone necessarily loves what we are doing. Just to point out one really good story: As we happened to meet Jeremy Rogers – wearing an Alien Workshop T-shirt – at NYC’s Tompkins Square Park, it seemed like we had gone on a run of seeing famous people. Only minutes later, we crashed into Will Smith’s son, surrounded by a bunch of teens. Naturally, the son of Mr. Men in Black had his very own security guard, who soon got the feeling that Roland might be a little too close for comfort – and proceed to aim for his ass with his foot. Roland got away, though. Shortly after, we happened upon another crowd of fans gathered outside of a location that seemed to be a restaurant. “Wait, who is this again?” I was asking myself, as Lady Gaga slowly appeared. People were screaming, crying, taking photos and filming, while Conny, who shot Alex Olson’s article, was already far ahead of us. Lady Gaga stepped into her car, went off with two other security cars in tow, and I almost lost track of them.

But then I found Conny nonchalantly spotting the weird scenery. And then he spontaneously decided to skitch her car, without knowing it was hers! Through the eyes of a security guard for one of the biggest pop stars in the world, worrying about what was going to happen next sounds about right. But because of the bad street conditions, Conny had to let her go after a few seconds and the situation defused itself. Funny enough, Conny actually had no clue what was going on.

Ultimately, it’s a thin line between good and bad, and sometimes the ‘anti-handshake’- as we call it – is just as interesting.

Text by Daniel Pannemann
Photos by Danny Sommerfeld

In addition to our latest “At Home With” issue, we produced a few videos to go along with the articles. We will release these videos on our website the next couple of days, starting today. Watch “Berlin Bound”, a video by Steffen Grap & Peter Buikema, below!

My name is Steffen Grap. I’m 20 years young and born and raised in Berlin: the city that never sleeps but is always tired. The city of contradictions. Nowhere else can you get so much inspiration and space for creative freedom. Nowhere else does that exact same freedom turn into a curse, causing you to relentlessly put yourself under too much pressure. Over and over you lose yourself in the city only to find and recreate yourself again later. You lose hope, you create hope. Berlin is a sensory overload, which sometimes is exactly what I need and other times is just too much for my brain.
Berlin, my aesthetic chaos.

It has been a while since the first volume of Pete’s B&B came out, mostly because Pete himself has started working and has a lot of projects left to finish. The funny thing is, though he has been holding onto some of this footage for a while “saving it” for the appropriate moment. In the end, that moment came when Roland Hoogwater ended up editing the whole thing, making this a slightly different but otherwise enjoyable installment of the B&B series.

The title came from one of our friends who does his own vlog and was working his 39th episode during the editing of this B&B. As in the last volume, this one is set in the Netherlands and features the likes of:

Peter Buikema, Wessel Oelen, Elya Dijk, Robin Hayford, Yungsam, Roland Hoogwater, Gerben Scharft and Hobbe Hollands.

 

Click here to watch the first volume of Pete’s B&B.

As part of the events in the run-up to the Nike SB #ProjectDSS, the winners of each stop had been invited to participate in an exclusive session together with the German Nike SB team riders at Nike Town Berlin. Afterwards, everybody got the chance to design an own and unique Nike iD shoe that should be inspired by the #ProjectDSS. Below you can see the four best designs picked by Jan Kliewer and Lennie Burmeister from Yamato Living Ramps. To create your own Nike iD shoe go here.

Roland Hoogwater

“The white color stands for the new thing, creme for the dog piss, yellowish for the slappy curb, green for the trees of Berlin, black for the marks the skaters are going to leave at the new spot and, last but not least, L.O.O.Q.H stands for “I have a hot ass” in French, which, in turn, means that DSS is the hot spot of Summer 2016.”

PLACE_nike-id_final5

Linus Werner

“I kept the basic colors brown and beige fitting to the ground and sand on which the whole project was built. The black lines shall depict the rails of the train that runs right next to the DSS, and thus, belong pretty much to the general view. For the sole I decided for grey speckles, which represent the variety of people on the Warschauer Street next by and also at the DSS itself. There you constantly run into all kind of different people from diverse countries or nationalities that all come for one and the same reason – to skate together at the DSS.”

PLACE_nike-id_final8

Denny Pham

“Janoski Max Nike ID colorway in dark mahogany red like the sunset at the Warschauer Bridge above the DSS or the 1,49 Euro red wine drunk by the pseudo punks in front of the Kaisers supermarket around the corner. “Bänke Berlin” on the heels for the spot that influenced my skating, my favorite spot of Berlin in close proximity of the DSS, which, moreover, is also a spot that Jan Kliewer played a major role building.”

PLACE_nike-id_final9

Farid Ulrich

“Doubtlessly, shoes always contribute to one’s own presence and we skateboarders as shoe destroyers per se, therefor, are especially picky and distinct when it comes to our footwear. It has to be stylish, plain and comfortable. The same is true for the skate parks we usually spend whole days at. It’s all about comfort and plainness. A good skate park is never too cluttered with too many obstacles in rainbow colors. It should also be a place to hang with your homies and to have some beers at the end of a day. All this I tried to transfer into my Nike ID shoe design, which is quite simple but still has stylish nuances.”

PLACE_nike-id_final7

Photos by Danny Sommerfeld

We are happy to announce Peter Buikema from The Netherlands as one of our new interns. Peter was already working for us in Amsterdam last August and just a few weeks later we invited him again to ‘The Dam’ for our release of the new issue.

Together with Alex O’Donahoe, Bobby Groves, Tjark Thielker, Budget Beuker and the rest of the PLACE crew we decided to stay for the long weekend to go out skating, of course. The result is our brand new series “Pete’s B&B” and this is our first episode!

Photo by Friedjof Feye.

In the last week of July we decided to make a trip to Montreal, Canada. Our good friends Friedjof Feye and Jonathan Peters have been out there for already three weeks when we got to the city on the east coast. I have pictured it way different, maybe because I always had a very romantic image in my head, when i thought about Northern American cities. But actually, in the end, we always ended up in the industrial part of the city. And those areas always have had the most romantic look to it and so does the industrial architecture in Canada. Especially on a Sunday. When no one is around and it seems like a ghost town. On the other side, the Downtown part of the city is comparable with any other major city in Canada, the USA or even Australia. Allthough, it is more peaceful! But we already decided to have a look around the outskirts of Canada’s second biggest town. With a group of around five guys we were wandering the empty streets and I think each one of us was documenting in a quite different way. Fidi was using a Olympus Mju 1 and his Fuji 200 – Here’s a few snap shots:

Daniel-Treppe-Montreal

DanielRoland-Brücke-Montreal

Danny-downhill-Montreal

Our friend and editor in chief is having a great month, He has an interview in the current issue of Solo skate mag and yesterday he put out a new part together with Converse. Because we have known Daniel for a pretty long time it is nice to see somebody who is not afraid to change up or fine tune his style with each part he puts out. This part shows you what Daniel and his friends have been focussing on both spot and trick wise. Enjoy!

Those of you that know us have seen us popping up in Leon Rudolph’s latest edit s/o, now if you don’t know what s/o stands for it is short for shout out. I guess that is what Danny Sommerfeld is giving Leon with this behind the scenes style gallery!




KZ_leon_place

Shout out to the end of summer.

KZ_leon_place2

Shout out to ignoring the rules of photography.

KZ_leon_place3

Shout out to all the cars that passed by and made Franz lose his focus.

BILDER_kaffeezigarette_leon_lowres12

Shout out to the next man on the come up.

KZ_leon_place5

Shout out to all the teachers that told me I would never amount to something

KZ_leon_place4

Shout out to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling in front of.

BILDER_kaffeezigarette_leon_lowres7

Shout out to all the places we travel to only to pass by in a second.

KZ_leon_place6

Shout out to JJ for bringing a mic to a skate session.

KZ_leon_place7

Shout out to ankle braces and smiling faces.

BILDER_kaffeezigarette_leon_lowres10

Shout out to all the prayers that were written down by sprayers.

KZ_leon_place8

And finally, shout out to all the people that skate second-hand grip and own a first class pet.

Check out Leon’s edit by clicking here and to see more of kaffeezigarette click here.

All photos by Danny Sommerfeld

Text by Roland Hoogwater

Very recently, we had not one but two Placemag sympathizers for a visit in Berlin, Leon Rudolph and Franz Grimm. As Leon is always down to film something, the guys cruised through the city and produced this, naturally, nice edit. And, of course, shout out back to you Leon!

Featuring: Franz Grimm, Danny Sommerfeld, Roland Hoogwater and Steffen Grap.

While making this issue, we made a list of possible articles. Each one of these articles needed to be a portrait of some sort. So when Manuel Schenck asked us if we wanted to interview Kevin, we wanted it to be a portrait of a special bond, a portrait of a friendship, and that is where Jon’s story comes in. Most of you have probably heard the name Kevin Rodrigues before, but some of you may have yet to come across the name Jon Monie, unless you are french, of course.

Before we traveled to Paris to work on the Parisian issue, we did not know that much about Jon. We started to hear his name mentioned here and there, but not much more. Eventually, while in Paris, we ended up meeting him one night at Chéz Justine, where he works. We started talking and he ended up telling us a couple of stories about young Kevin. Jon basically saw Kevin grow up (on a skateboard.) They both skated for the same skate shop (Nozbone) and they became friends, a friendship that lasts to this day. The original idea was to show the history behind their friendship, but instead, Jon, Kevin and Manuel Schenck (the interviewer) sat down and created something totally different and unexpected. We don’t really know what to say about it, so we will just let one of our favorite artists speak for us:

“Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity” – Marcel Duchamp

To summarize: we feel strongly about this portrait but in the end it is you, the spectator and reader, who ultimately completes the portrait.

Intro: Roland Hoogwater
Interview & Photos by Manuel Schenck

kev et jon ambiance 1

How did you guys meet each other?

Love begins with the glare of a soul who expected nothing and ends with the disappointment of an ego that demands everything.

Jon, what did you teach Kev?

Where there is a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.

So you gave him some advice?

Expect much from yourself and little from others and you will avoid incurring resentments.

You both differ in age right?

There are days, months, endless years when it happens nothing. There are minutes and seconds that contain a whole world.

What are you doing right now, Jon?

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

jon_wallie
Jon Monie – Wallie (April 8th 2010) Photo: Jean Feil

Do you see each other a lot?

In nature, everything always has a reason. If you understand why, you do not need experience.

You work in a bar, Jon. Is it not difficult to not drink too much?

Any obstacle strengthens the determination. He who has set a goal does not change.

You see Jon quite often at the bar, right Kev?

You have to become the man you are. Do what only you can do. Become who you are, be the master and sculptor of yourself.

Kev, you skated for 5boro before you started skating for Polar. How was that change?

Our youth love luxury, have bad manners, mock authority and have no respect for age. In this age, children are tyrants.

Do you still see the guys from 5Boro?

Experience shows that those who have never trusted anyone will ever be disappointed.

How is the Polar family doing?

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but whether we rise every time we fall.

kev wallie grab diptik der 1
Kevin Rodrigues – Wallie FS Grab (December 27th 2015)

Are you working on some new projects?

Diseases that come from the wickedness of a woman’s heart are: disobedience without modesty, anger, backbiting, jealousy and a low intelligence.

You skate for Supreme now. Did that change anything for you concretely?

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Back in the day you visited New York together, how was that experience?

We can beat his opponent through love and not hate. Hatred is the most subtle form of violence. Hate injures the hater, not the hated.

What happened with your Instagram account Kev? Are you or are you not in the game?

Others say the secret is treachery, others say it is her foolishness.

What are you doing when you’re not skating, Kev?

I object to violence because when it appears to produce the good, the good that results is only temporary, while the wrong product is permanent.

What do you want to do in the future?

The madman who is chasing the pleasures of life and is disappointed; the wise man avoids evil.

kev et jon ambiance 2

Kev, what would you like to say to Jon?

We do not yet understand life, how could we understand death?

And you Jon, what would you like to say to Kev?

May everyone have a chance to find precisely the way of life that enables him to realize his maximum happiness.

Give me your last words.

Jon – A man should never be ashamed to admit that he is wrong; for in making this confession, he proves that he is wiser today than yesterday. What do you think?

Kev – It is no coincidence; everything is a trial, a punishment, a reward, or a foresight.

Thanks you two. If I may I would like to conclude this interview with a phrase that sums up the whole.

“Stupidity has only two ways of being: It is silent or it speaks. Silent stupidity is bearable. ”

kev rodrigues earlygrab beenplant wallride

We first came into contact with Jun’s skating via Instagram, as well as through Leon Rudolph’s YouTube channel. Jun kind of stuck out for some reason—he wasn’t the best skater in the videos, but he seemed to be having the most fun. His personality shined through, which is much harder to find in today’s skateboard world than someone who can hardflip a 16. Not limiting himself to the realm of skateboarding, Jun also makes music and has established his own clothing brand called 송준sky. Clearly, he expresses himself a lot across mediums and industries. Rewinding back to a couple of weeks ago, we went on a trip to Bremen and got to meet Jun. We had the opportunity to see if he uses the internet as a tool to create that feeling of happy-go-lucky charm, or if it just comes organically. I think flipping through this issue provides you with the answer to this question. In a sense, meeting Jun felt like déjà vu, similar to when we met Franz Grimm, who we featured in our last issue. Although they are completely different types of guys, they both gave us a similar feeling: that good vibe that makes you want to join in and hang out for just a little while longer.

by Roland Hoogwater
Photo: Danny Sommerfeld

It seems that every time we fly somewhere Leon finds the urge to release something new, the last time we were instantly hooked and the video became our pre-session go-to skate clip. This one is special because it contains the first “real” Max Sand footage in a long time! Max is the kind of skater we have come to love, he possesses the right balance between board control, a do or die attitude and a way to make any type of make a good one. Max can get away with stuff a lot of us can’t, one-foot landings, clipping a ledge, an out of balance kick turn often followed by a look into the camera. He just makes you want to go out and skate and that is the most important thing.

Additionally, we want to give you some insight into why this thing is called 2backpacks. In a way, it is an homage, firstly to Danny Sommerfeld’s skating and secondly to a guy in Bremen who recognized Danny and told his friend “Do you see that guy? He always carries two backpacks, one for his stuff and one for his big nutsack!” A classic remark that stuck with all that were present.

Every year there are a lot of companies and crews that want to do a tour or to just spend a couple of days in Berlin. The skaters want to see and skate the famous spots like Kulturforum, Naga, Polendenkmal, Bänke, Frankfurter Tor and many other. Recently, the German Converse Cons team riders Daniel Pannemann, Danny Sommerfeld, and Jonas Heß met in Berlin to produce a clip, yet with a whole different approach. Next to some of the before mentioned famous spots, they rather tried to find something else, something that gives the viewer a new perspective of the endless possibilities a city like Berlin can offer. With this aim in mind, they chose the right photographer, Henrik Biemer, who is known for his unique way in which he depicts the place he calls home, whereby he is always looking for some new ways to shoot something whenever he goes out to skate.

Text by Paul Röhrs

All Photos by Biemer

When we arrived at the Nike Store located at Ku’damm, we had our iced coffee’s ready. The sun was out and spirits high up. Nike gave us the possibility to do the city tour that we always wanted to do. Not once did we drive past tourist traps like Unter den Linden, but we got to see skate tourist locations like Kulturforum and others. Our hosts were telling us about the ABD’s, while at the same time hollering at almost every person we drove past.

Three spots were on our menu – when we got to the first spot (Spot der Visionäre) the show really seemed to start. Not just for us as skaters but for all to see.
The best thing about the Nike SB bus tour was that it not only showed skaters around the city, it showed other people the many ways skaters use the city. Win-win situation.

Winners:

Spot 1: Valentin Ott (Spot der Visionäre)
Spot 2: Casper Brooker (Gleisdreieck)
Spot 3: Quirin Staudt (Nationalgalerie)

There’s always new people coming to the German capital. Some of them leave, some of them stay. Roland Hoogwater made his way from Groningen, The Netherlands, to Berlin and is definitely here to stay. Time for a short introduction…

BILDER_BERLIN_daniel-roland_mai2015_lowres-80

Roland, please give us some basic information about your person.
My full name is Roland Jacques Hoogwater and I’m 28 years young. I was born in the city of Groningen, The Netherlands, and I’ve lived there for about 28 years. I have been a skater and a skate nerd for about 15 years. I also have a background in the arts. My first skate video was [Toy Machine’s] Welcome to Hell.

When did you come to Berlin and what were the reasons?
I came to Berlin on my birthday, the 28th of January. The reasons for the move aren’t really straightforward. My girlfriend and I both finished art school in my old hometown and I was working at the skate shop, Stigmatic. I guess my girlfriend thought we needed something – a change of scenery, perhaps of rhythm – so out of the blue she said, “Let’s move to Berlin.” I replied in a positive manner and now we are here. It was very spontaneous and we really hadn’t planned anything, but we knew some people here and I thought it might be good for my creativity.  

What do you do for a living?
I’m living the artist dream, working in the Mall of Berlin as a stock boy. “Started from the bottom, now we here!” At the same time, I’m doing odd jobs for PLACE mag and I’m helping Carsten “Barney” Beneker with a project on which I am illustrating.

We heard about your T-shirt label, Jacques – what’s the story behind that?

It’s a project I started in the winter of 2014/2015. After I finished art school, I suddenly had the urge to make stuff with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Which was actually kind of stupid, because I should have started doing that while in art school, that would have made things so much easier. I wanted to make a book containing some of the artwork I had made, which is coming out soon under the title, Doe maar normaal dan doe je al gek genoeg (English: “Just act normal and you are acting crazy enough”). But at the same time, I had these ideas that just didn’t connect well with my other works of art. So I created a different outlet for those ideas, which became Jacques. The logo I use is a garbage bag, because I like to buy vintage clothes and turn them into one-off pieces. At the same time, all the stuff I make will either be in a second hand shop or in a garbage bag someday. And Jacques is my grandfather’s name, that has been passed on to me. At the moment I’m working on a couple of new pieces like shirts, hats, coats, and possibly some bags. I’m sewing things myself, and am hands-on with the screen printing. I try keep the quality of the product as high as possible and have the stuff be fair trade; some of the stuff we do is certified Earth Positive climate neutral. I have been getting a lot of support and good feedback on the products, so as far as that goes, I’m extremely grateful. It’s a wonderful feeling to have people wear your stuff, and as for the future, I am opening a Jacques Web store, and also hope to be in some stores by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

jacques

Who are your favorite people to skate with?
My all-time favorite person to skate with is probably my old roommate G-Dog (Gerben Scharft), but he recently quit skating and started boxing. Nowadays, the people I call to go skate with are Dr. Lensing, Danny Sommerfeld, Tjark Thielker, Nils Brauer, and Daniel Pannemann, who all play a part in making Berlin my new home while simultaneously making me feel like I suck at skating (laughs).

Photos: Danny Sommerfeld
Interview: Pille Pop