Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Spend a day skating the IOU paradise factory
Jaakko Ojanen, Philipp Schuster, Mason Merlino and George Poole rip the warehouse paradise of Europe’s biggest wooden park builder.
Fürstenzell in Bavaria, Germany, is home to the production centre of Europe’s premiere ramp builder, IOU Ramps.
Chances are that if you have ever skated a wooden park in mainland Europe in the last two decades, you've appreciated the handiwork of Andreas ‘Schützi’ Schützenberger. From the street course at the much-missed European Skateboard Championships to the Oslo Skate Hall, there's barely a wooden construction worth the name which hasn’t been touched by the hand of this master craftsman in the realm of wooden skateboarding structures.
What is less known about IOU’s idea incubator, is that for the pleasure of the crew and to keep the reason for IOU’s existence always in the foreground of their minds, they've built a perfect mini ramp suspended from the ceiling 7m off the ground in there.
You can see where this is going.
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A reach-out was made and we whipped together one of our trademark mixed crews: Finland’s ridiculously gifted Jaakko Ojanen, our friend Philipp Schuster from Austria, Oregon alumnus MasonMerlino and Anglo-French ATV and possessor of the best back noseblunt in the game George Poole for an invite-only session on the floating ramp.
If we behaved ourselves, said Schützi, he might even get some of the big toys out of the warehouse.
Philipp Schuster – Iceplant to Fakie
© Philipp Schuster
Jaakko Ojanen – Side Blunt
© Philipp Schuster
Andreas Schutzenberger
© Philipp Schuster
Mason Merlino – Backside Boneless
© Philipp Schuster
If you create a little mental montage here, a-la The A-Team, of sparks flying and hammers hammering, then we can skip to the reveal:
Schützi and the boys set up a skate course layout from top to bottom, starting with the mini ramp under the roof and cascading down through pallets and platforms to the (perfect) floor of the vast industrial hall itself.
Daydream playground stuff, and a ‘for one night only’ opportunity for four unique talents to throw down.
Schützi did what he does best: delivering dream terrain.
The crew responded in hype.
Get amongst it on the video at the top of the page.
