Skateboarding
A skatepark on a lake? Red Bull Pool Drop made it happen. The mastermind behind this mind-blowing course spills the secrets.
Red Bull Pool Drop in Munich, Germany, was a skateboarding contest like no other. Held at a skatepark on a lake in the heart of the city's picturesque Olympiapark, massive crowds on the surrounding hillsides watched some of the biggest names in skateboarding go head-to-head. The event brought an exciting new twist to the traditional skate contest format.
Zion Wright, Kairi Netsuke, Leticia Bufoni, Dashawn Jordan, Leo Romero, Madars Apse, TJ Rogers, Zuza Bone and friends ripped this brand-new format both for the fun-loving Munich MASH crowd as well as a global broadcast audience watching live on the internet via Red Bull Skateboarding’s YouTube channel.
But how was the Red Bull Pool Drop water skatepark built?
Once the dust had settled on the weekend, we caught up with skateboarding visionary Oli Bürgin, the brains behind this insane concept, to find out about the logistics, hazards and unexpected challenges in bringing a seemingly impossible idea to life.
Hi Oli, can you tell us a little bit about the background to the project in terms of how you had the idea, how did you test the possibility and so on?
The original seed for the idea for the ‘pool party’ came from Red Bull Germany and because of my history with Olympiapark and Munich MASH from the Red Bull Roller Coaster skateboard event back in 2018 and 2019. I was asked to be in charge of developing the concept. We were able to build on the learnings from 2018 and 2019 and use the combined 60+ years of ramp-building experience between me and Andreas [Schützenberger] from IOU Ramps.
Did the Pool Drop course actually float, or was it supported or suspended somehow?
The course was actually built on a scaffolding platform which was already set up in Olympiapark for the UEFA football Euros fan park earlier this summer. The two pools with the rainbow rail were built like two boats which we sunk to the bottom of the lake by adding about 60 tons of steel to each of them. Floating obstacles were considered, but we decided not to use them – yet – as they might not be stable enough to actually work for skateboarding.
How confident were you that this would actually work? What testing did you do?
We were testing as we built, tweaking and adding features wherever needed. Andreas and I have been working on multiple projects together for many years, so we share a similar vision of what a skatepark can look like and how to make it functional for high-level skateboarding.
What kind of materials were involved? Could you guess how much the whole thing weighed?
The course consisted of scaffolding, spruce construction wood, birch plywood and many, many thousands of screws. I would think altogether, we used about 250 tons of material, a total of 200 tons of scaffolding, 50 tons of wood delivered in two mega-trailers, and 1.5km of beams, with the longest handrail being a full 17m in length. Building the course took 15 days, with just two days for dismantling!
In these environmentally-aware times, how much of the materials could be salvaged and re-used?
Actually, most of the course can be reused. A sizeable portion of the materials had already been part of the Red Bull Roller Coaster. It will go into the IOU Ramps storage, and hopefully, we can reassemble it in a creative way in the near future. Keeping the carbon footprint of skateboard events as low as possible is important to me.
You’re well known in European skateboarding as a kind of 'big idea' thinker in terms of concepts from ESC Basel course designs, through Red Bull Roller Coaster and so on. Is this the ultimate event concept, or do you have other ideas up your sleeve?
Skateboarding is an endless source of creativity, and ideas for concepts pop up on a regular basis, so hopefully, I’ll get the chance to work on more unique events like Red Bull Pool Drop or bring back a refined version of the Red Bull Roller Coaster sometime soon! It was so fun dropping into that slopestyle course and just letting the obstacles come to you! These kind of events showcase that skateboarding is an art form that sometimes gets mistaken for a sport.
