| : 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!
: Danial If you make it to the greatnorthwest and cant find a vertramp let me know I can direct you to a couple of nice ones just south of Vancover. Mike
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