Skateboarding
What Lies Beneath: basement DIY bedlam from Vienna
Philipp Schuster takes us underground to uncover a gnarly bowl.
12 min
Philipp Schusters DIY Diaries
Philipp Schuster’s subterranean homesick blues.
This is the story of how a group of skaters got together to excavate a suburban basement in Vienna and turn it into a skatepark right under one of their houses.
The project was the brainchild of Johannes Wahl, who roped in the rest of his crew for a build that was to require many, many man- hours of unglamorous spadework before urethane would ever hit concrete.
In a sense DIY has become the new romantic heartland of skateboarding now that street is a label hung off every other product in the galaxy. DIY spots are always much harder to skate than they look – just hacking around them is an achievement in itself.
In that respect, each one of them is unique, but few are more unique than this concrete monster, dug out and fashioned from a derelict space which had been left neglected for years.
It just goes to show what is possible if you put your mind to it; click the play button on the above video and allow Philipp Schuster to introduce you to the guiding spirits behind this beast in the latest episode of DIY Diaries.