OR HOW TO SKATE SWEDEN
Swedish Skateboard
JROCANA Skate Camp 83
WAY OF ENGLANDAND NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.
Torque plant on the camp ramp, Claus Grabke
The story ahead is a semi-detailed account of
what can happen when four skaters are asked to
be trainers at the Swedish Summer Skate
Camp. The trainers consisted of freestyler
Rodney Mullen, slalomer Martin Sweeney, and
verticalists Neil Blender and myself.
Our trip began as Neil and I went through hell
waiting in line at LAX (never go anywhere near
that airport) to board our plane. Once on we
were greeted by a friendly steward who wanted
to take Neil's head off halfway through the flight.
Neil's remark: "I think it had something to do with
the way I accepted my food." Some nine hours
later and only a few complaints from the
passengers and airline people, we deplaned in
London, claimed our baggage and hoped to
meet our London connections. As we paraded
on the dog show we were spotted by Tony
Candle, referred to as 'Doby' from here on, and
a hoard of others including Rodney Mullen, who
arrived earlier, Martin Sweeney, Lee Bryan and
Paul Sunman. We stayed in London for two days
and got filthy. Some of the areas skated
included the Farnborough halfpipe and
Southbanks.
More on London, it's skaters, terrain and
atmosphere later. Now on to Sweden. After a
relatively un-eventful flight we touched down in
Stockholm and prepared to meet the future. We
met the Camp directors Jani Soderhall and
Phillip Willners. With hellos exchanged we
proceeded in Jani's lovely van, the door falls out.
Arriving at the camp we dropped our luggage
and decided it was time to go see the areas that
we would be skating on. The first thing we saw
was the ramp. This ramp makes you nervous
just looking at it, the thing's a monster, some 12
high and 32 across. There is no way to explain
how good this ramp is except that if you rode it
you would almost want to live there, almost.
Rodney then disappeared to the freestyle area
to put in his 5 hours, Martin S. sleeps and Neil
and I thought about skating. After about an hour
we did. We were happy.
Back at the camp we came in contact with
some of the skaters for the first weeks' session.
The Germans were our neighbors across the
hall. Four of them drove 24 hours just to skate
here, names: Claus Grabke, Martin, Herman
and Andres. "Herman, don't quit skating, you
like it too much!!" Time was getting lost. We tried
to get some sleep, no dice, we run around for a
while, then slept. The first day of training was to
start the next morning.
At 8:30 a.m. we were awakened by Phillip,
saying "It's a beautiful day, we must eat now."
Neil, Rodney and I ask if he was really serious
about getting us up so early, Martin still slept on.
Phillip claims he let us sleep in. We eventually
got up and had breakfast, it consisted of
cornflakes and milk, excellent. Now it's time for
stretching and running. We figure, "Sure why not
we'll try it." It was the last day we did stretching
and running. Hans Gothberg (Bauta) was
skating. We tried to get more of the guys at the
camp to skate with us. There was about 20
rampriders there but only a few would skate.
Well, whatever few actually did skate we skated
with. This went on for the rest of the week until
Saturday, the end of the first session. Time to
have a contest. Freestyle was first, the French
Maidens
Danny Webster
were very good, along with Go-Go, a Swiss girl
who competes very well with the guys. Rodney
is heard saying. "These skaters could do very
well if they entered a contest in U.S."
Ramp came next and most of the people at
the camp entered. Stand-outs included Claus
Grabke, Bruno Peters, Hans Gothberg and
Martin.
After the contest we went to Stockholm where
Rodney began making money by using his
talent. He did 2, twenty minute sessions and
earned...well we won't mention it. Martin, Jani
and a few others did slalom, the crowds were
amazed by both types of skating.
A few local spots were skated compliments of
Puttis and Claus and their cars. Uplands ramp
was pretty good, the best part being that it was
located inside a barn and could be skated any
time of the year. After we got back we noticed
how messy our room was but none of us wanted
to clean it up. Someone had an idea; with the
camp going there seemed to be a lot of girls
hanging around, so why not put them to work?
Our room was cleaned up within half hour.
The beaches: the beaches are wild. If you're
ever in Sweden try to go to a beach, it's pretty
eye opening.
The second week was basically the same as
the first. Bauta (Hans Gothberg) joined the
army. The army is mandatory in Sweden-
everyone must serve 6 months. Mark Evans
(England) brought his video camera over and
made some funny videos with Neil at the beach.
At the end of the week a gig was set-up by two
local bands, one group had a little trouble getting
started but finally did. Another band played also,
the drummer and guitarist of 'SLAM, a Swedish
punk band and the bassist and singer of
Procrastination Tomorrow.' The no-name group
made a noise some called good while others
didn't know what to call it. Anyway the night was
fun. More girls start hanging around. Bruno
entertained one, then got nervous after
receiving a letter saying her father wanted to kill
him, nothing happened...yet!
Danny Webster burns up the Famborough Ramp