Tag: hamburg

Always good to see Hamburg through the eyes of Nizan Kasper.

Featuring Christoph Friedmann, Niklas Speer v. Cappeln, Lars Zimmermann, Daniel Meyer, Leonid Yanevskiy, Dominik Selke, Benny Vogel, Tjark Damerius & Finn Nietz.

We’ve been to the premiere in Hamburg, Germany, and we had a blast! Mr. Nizan Kasper blessed us with this sick 42-minute-long video for Hamburg’s local shop called “Lobby Skateshop” and all we have to say is: “Great work everyone involved. You guys smashed it!” Now go see for your yourselves!

This one has been a long one in the making but it is one of our favorite releases. It has been mentioned here before but Hamburg has really given a strong account of itself in the last 2 years or so. This brings me to one of the best things about the German skate scene, it is NOT all focused on the capital city. From Munich to Nüremberg, to Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, and most of all the Ruhr Valley area. The countries scene as a whole is blossoming but it is fair to say that output wise Hamburg might be at the top currently. With all that being said, APPARAT 2 by Jonas Strecke is amongst the best things to come out of the Hanzestadt. Now sometimes we like to talk to people about their work but after speaking to Jonas we found out that we this is a bigger thing for the future, so, instead of that we asked him to talk about his own work. Which you can read bellow.

Film, Edit & Text By Jonas Strecke.
Intro by Roland Hoogwater.
The Start

The film APPARAT2 was shot over a period of 3 years featuring 43 different skaters that all contributed to it. APPARAT is a video series based in Hamburg, Germany. The basic idea for the second episode was the portrayal of lost or unused spaces and their urban mechanisms that ought to be rethought and reclaimed. In Hamburg most of the urban space is already planned, sold, or speculated upon for the next couple of decades. 

The layout of most of the spots that I had in mind for this project paved the way for a lengthy creative process. A lot of skaters complained to me about these spots and that was no surprise to me. It is hard to have a session with 10 people when only one skater is able to do a trick.

“Some might know the scenes of the girl on the telephone panicking while the snipers’ red dot wanders around her forehead…”

G20

During the G20 Certain parts of the city got locked off completely. Little did I know that the situations I would run into and documented resulted in a so-called ‘state of exception’. It meant that we were in a state of emergency and military forces were allowed to intervene within the area of the Sternschanze. 

It was a mess. Within the first minutes, the smashing started. At the end of the scene, a guy walks up to me with a Molotov cocktail in his hand (it only is slightly visible in the footage).

After that, I was trying to get out of that specific area and by chance, I ran into a guy who was rushed away by about 7 police officers. I was standing right next to him when they started beating him up on the ground and I raised my camera and hands to show that I surrendered. That’s where the shaky bits of footage came from. Afterward, we sat down in a bar and watched the full mayhem on TV, while it was happening “LIVE” right next to us. Some might know the scenes of the girl on the telephone panicking while the snipers’ red dot wanders around her forehead or the couple that was fucking publicly in this free for all area.

The thing I am trying to say is that it was a crazy experience and in the beginning, I was kind of scared to release this material. There were ongoing investigations and I did not want to have anything to do with either the police or with the demonstrators. However, I believe enough time has passed.

Rooftop

In 2020, Benny got excited when I told him to go for a rooftop section. We decided to go for one of the less risky spots, which was hard to get to. On the one hand, because it is currently a construction site on the other hand because the first 6-8 meters up to the first platform have to be climbed. So we took a rope. After about thirty minutes of trying we finally managed to somehow attach the rope to the first platform and started the ascend. Up there we started the first shot. 2-minutes later I turned around and saw some terrified people on the balconies next to us, waving with phones in their hands. It took around 5-minutes for the police to arrive on the other side below us. We packed our stuff, climbed down -luckily on a different side than the police- and ran. We got lucky that time.

Benny Vogez not to be confused with Benny Vogel! Ollie into a pretty sketchy-looking pole. Photo by Fabio Schöneweihs.
DIY

The DIY was built illegally in just 2 weekends. The idea was to skate the DIY for about two weekends before the building got demolished. Throughout the fundraiser party, we had to cover the costs, people took the demolition part quite seriously. They started to take one of the still in use kitchens apart and ran through intact walls. Sometimes skaters are savages. Funnily both the building and the DIY stand to this day. Not for public use though.

Billstraße

Billstraße is one of the locations I wanted to document for the imagery of the film. It has a forgotten and different sort of atmosphere most of the spots or moments in APPARAT2 try to contain. Only in winter 19/20, I managed to film a single line with Michel Rethemeier over there because of its crust. Documenting the hoarded junk of various import-export companies that needed some sketchy permission.

Underground

I had stacked all of the needed footage up until the summer of 2020. The last shot that was missing for me was an underground delivery entrance to one of the train stations. After all the hustle everybody went through it was a lot to ask. The place is off-limits, smells, and is full of rat and pigeon shit. The first time we went the camera broke and all of the clips of Danny got lost. 2 months later I managed to convince Mike to go. It took him a while to stomp the trick just because he did not want to bail into shit – literally. The two underground clips of Mike and Danny are the opener of the video and it means a lot to me that we went back.

Thanks to all the skaters and people that contributed and believed in this and especially Danny, Mike, and Daniel to be there and stay with me from the beginning. Big up for the last-minute support from Fabio who did the titles and illustration artwork for the hardcopy.

“They started to take one of the “still in use kitchens” apart and ran through intact walls. Sometimes skaters are savages.”

*Click the titles to go to the specific moments that are mentioned in the text below.

You know how we always say Hamburg’s most productive crew. Well, our boys went on a trip to Paris to bring us some Pre-Covid19 feelings. Sit back and relax Stanley We’s latest production.

Featuring: Lars Zimmermann, Benny Vogel, Christoph Friedmann and Nizan Kasper himself.

Leon Charo-Tite is our next "Unsigned Hype" and he is from Freiburg/Germany and that part of his heritage can be an issue. Many have gotten stamped and sidelined as the "German Skater". To our U.S. audience, that's kind of like being stamped Canadian or Brazillian in the early 2000's.

Hamburg’s skateboarding scene has become more productive than most of the other cities in Germany it feels like and here’s another reason to believe!

A film by Danny Stephen & Valentin Schmeißer.

Featuring: Patrick Lindenberger, Luis Mathys, Tim Gerhke, Valentin Schmeißer, Michel Rethemeier, Danny Stephen & Nino Schöneweihs.

Fresh off that boat (actually this was produced before the cruise) Hamburg’s most productive group of skaters Stanley WE is back with a new project for our viewing pleasure. Those guys really put Hamburg on the map lately. Use headphones for this one, the sound is really good.

Here’s a little explanation:

“R. is a video-installation that documents the encounter of the Sculpture artist Roberto Cuellar with our Skatecrew Stanley WE.
This work was shown on multiple TV screens at the artnight of the SKTWK -Skateweek in Düsseldorf 2019.
The centre point of the exhibition was the sculpture of Roberto Cuellar and the walls and screens around it were ment for the other artists involved in this project.”

Feat.: Kenny Hopf, Christoph Friedmann, Dennis Behrens, Benny Vogel, David Neier, Luis Mathys, Mike Brauer, Johann Rohde, Johannes Keschke, Christoph Reinhardt and Lars Zimmermann.

A video by Nizan Kasper.

What do you do when you have walked through your city over a million times? You are probably trying to find new roads around the good old town. Stanley WE & Lobby Skateshop went a bit further, took the old concept of Hamburg’s famous Labskaus Jam format and got everyone on a boat cruise through the Hanseatic city. Hamburg knows how to throw a party!

Filmed & edited by Nizan Kasper.

Extended Play meaning:
1. extended play (record, tape, etc.)
2.an extended-play single, one of the formats in which music is sold, usually comprising four or five tracks.

Welcome to Cleptomanicx’s newest offering “Extended Play” which is aptly titled because it is in fact not a full length but also not a single.
It is a mid-length video created by Nizan Kasper who used musical terminology to give these 10 to 15-minute videos a suitable name. To strengthen the reference, he divided the project into a side-A and a Side-B with two “tracks” on each side.

 

nizan web
Nizan Kasper produced this EP.

Similar to an EP there is a single on this recording, and there are album cuts. Like the team montage, which features one of Denis Laaß’ best tricks ever, we guess the music reminded him of the 90’s and sparked something!

Another great album cut is Niklas’ 50-50, Nosewheelie nollie flip and David Conrads vert trick which came as a surprise to many.

filming
Benny Vogel, Nizan and Lars, footy check.

But in the end, people often buy the EP to listen to the single and that single is Benny Vogel and Lars Zimmermann’s welcome part. Pop and creativity are what they bring to the table with a classic “Day before the premiere” type of ender. Let hope Hamburg is proud of what they achieved because this is not an everyday thing.

Schermafbeelding 2018-06-18 om 12.53.42

Now press play and enjoy all that this EP has to offer.

Text By Roland Hoogwater.
Photos by Nizan Kasper.

Who would have ever thought a remix of “My Humps” makes a great fit in a skate video!?

Jesus! These guys are having a run at the moment. Hamburg is back again with Nizan Kasper, Niklas Speer, Benny Vogel, Noah Moerbeck, Lars Zimmermann and special guest Felipe Bartolome, hitting the flawless streets of Paris.

Within the past months Hamburg’s very own Stanley WE crew has been constantly releasing new footage in increasingly shorter intervals. We gladly support this developement! Believe the hype, watch Hype#2 and stay hyped!

Featuring Nizan Kasper, Acid Pablo (dancin), Benny Vogel, Noah Moerbeck, and David Neier.

We told you before that our friends from the Lobby Skateshop had something cooking for the end of the year. Now it is time for you to see what Lobby is all about. Germany’s second biggest city always dealt with some kind of an underdog position, a situation that makes it even harder to shine. The city is mad underrated and we would suggest you take a visit with your friends, go to Lobby and say what’s up. To get you motivated for your spring trip to Hamburg you should now enjoy their very first promo video.

Feat.: Benny Vogel, Nizan Kasper, Lars White, Dennis Behrens, Christoph Reinhardt, Danny Stephen, Anton Wempner, Kenny Hopf, Noah Moerbeck and Christoph Friedmann.

Edit: Nizan Kasper
Filming: Nizan Kasper & Lars Zimmermann

Welcome Skateboards went to Berlin and they managed to skate the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin between the police patrol. Also, they left some pretty brutal marks on some spots in the Netherlands, feat.: Will Blaty, Ryan Lay, Ryan Townley, Aaron Goure, Daniel Vargas, Roman Pabich, Rick Fabro & Dakota Hunt.

For us, it is very refreshing to watch a video part from a guy that we never even heard of. Also refreshing is, that, in this case, you are really not even sure if he is going to land the trick or what is going to happen next. That is what we sometimes call the Jake Johnson effect, as stupid as it sounds. Wiggly legs and a crazy board control combined with a strong will and eyes of steel can make a good skater, that is for sure. Shout out to Stanley-WE, Nizan Kasper and Lars White!