Ray Barbee - Berlin
Photography by gerdrieger.com
1bailgun0 Issue-14 Summer 2012
EDITORIAL Welcome to Bailgun issue #14, this time we have a mix from the Koloss skate tour to Berlin, old cars in Bottrop, a Demo in M端nster, the Matt Grabowski interview to some cool photos of Randy Hansen playing a wild gig at the Hot Jazz Club. Enjoy issue #14 Gerd
Delano, Jack,, photographer. A.S. Gerdee, of 3251 Maypole(?) Street, working as a switchman at Proviso yard of C & NW RR, Chicago, Ill. 1943 April 1 transparency : color. Notes: Title from FSA or OWI agency caption. Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944. Subjects: Chicago and North Western Railway Company World War, 1939-1945 Railroad employees Railroad switches Railroad shops & yards United States--Illinois--Melrose Park Format: Transparencies--Color Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 12002-1 (DLC) 93845501 General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc. pnp/pp.fsac Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a34669 Call Number: LC-USW36-575
contents - Issue #14 COVER Ray Barbee playing at the Bright Trade Show in Berlin Photography by gerdrieger.com
The Koloss Tross to Berlin Page: 10 - 29
Bottrop Hot Rod Page: 32 - 45
Demo time Page: 48 - 61
Matt Grabowski Interview Page: 64- 79
Randy Hansen Live Page: 82- 91
Spotcheck: Velbert Page: 92- 93
Photography by Torschmied.com
Koloss tro
to
Berlin
Photos and Words by gerdrieger.com
ross
Mattias Preisser - crailslide with speed Photography by gerdrieger.com
Tom Schulze - front blunt
The
Koloss Easter Tour started out in M端nster with about 20 people and 5 cars heading towards Berlin for some skating, exploring new terrain and drinking some beers with friends. And even though the weather did not make it too easy with occasional rain and even a snow shower the Koloss Tross had a great time in Berlin. See you on the next tour.
Kevin Kowalski, Madonna Desaster Mathis Wenner - fs Hurricane
Tim Johnson, giant stalefish
Bjรถrn with a high wallride to fakie
The Crew
Bjรถrn Klotz with a proper frontside air and NOT a frontside indy
Tom ollied all the way from the small bump on the left into the transition of the bowl. Photo: gerdrieger.com
Markus - bank grind
Photo: gerdrieger.com
DIY style, looks like shit but everybody had some fun
Parting shot: wall you need for a skate trip
GABRIEL ENGELKE - BACKSIDE OLLIE • PHOTO: LARS GARTA
Bottrop Custom Culture Stickshifts and safetybelts, bucket seats have all got to go. When we‘re driving in the car, it makes my baby seem so far. I need you here with me, not way over in a bucket seat.
Photos: S.Preussler/Torschmied.com lyrics: Cake - Stickshifts and Safetybelts
But when we‘re driving in my malibu, it‘s easy to get right next to you. I say, „baby, scoot over, please.“ And then she‘s right there Bottrop Custom Culture
I need you here with me, not way over in a bucket seat... Bottrop Custom Culture
Bottrop Custom Culture
Bottrop Custom Culture Since 2003 every year the Airport „Schwarze Heide“ turns into a race track when Car Clubs & Lone Wolfs from all over Europe meet. With around 250 pre 1965 hot rods and kustom cars and 150 bikes Bottrop represents one of the biggest kustom vehicle conventions in Europe. Besides showing off stylish old machines they actually get into action on the vintage 1/8 mile race track on the airport runway. Alongside with Hot Rods, Kustom Cars and Bikes there is quite a lot of meet and greet BBQ, Beer as well as over 30 Kustom Kulture artist from all over the world displaying their artwork. An event not to be missed Check out bottropkustomkulture.com/
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Demo Time
Some impression of a demo in M端nster that was protesting against a demonstration of a group of neo nazis. Police had to protect the nazis demo from the people that did not like any nazis demonstrating in their neighbourhood. Sounds strange? It is. Photography by gerdrieger.com
w w w.F R EEBE
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Matt Grabowsk i Interview
This is part one of the Matt Grabowski Interview. He starts of talking about his 67 Opel Admiral that he´s been working on and driving latley. Next he continues to give some insight on the bowl he built in his barn. Matt lives skateboarding.
Words by Matt Grabowski Photography by gerdrieger.com
The Admiral is a tough project. I have no background
in cars but combustion engines are the best engines and especially older models. I have nothing that attracts me to a new tuned engine. Electronics with chip tuning. This reminds me of electronic music which is a lousy number. I like to let things grow with old reknowned technology just like with a gasoline generator or a diesel engine - something has to rotate or smell like exhaust fumes. You have to get dirty while working. That‘s bullshit just standing there and reading error messages straight from the laptop. The old Opel factory test track in Rüsselsheim was mind boggling. How are cars designed today? Back then there were no wind tunnels. The Opel Admiral and Diplomat models had to be pushed out on a frozen lake to see how the behavior of the steering axle and suspension worked. No simulation, no frills, this was the real thing! I would have liked to push Admiral cars around. Well, anyway, I bought a 1967 Opel Admiral. The frame was important for me was which is in good condition. A garage paint job and the chrome looks good as well. There‘s some rust here and there but nothing is completely rusted through. I searched for the car for about 6 months. While I was looking at the engine which had obviously had someone try out their poor car motor building skills with silicone pasted on half of the cylinder head, the front spring was rattling, and really badly welded parts both inside and on the outside of the car. A 2.8 liter dual carburetor with six cylinders. So it was the perfect ride. It was important to me that this was a 1960s model because starting in 1972 seat belts had to be used. But fuck that. I believe you have a better chance to survive a car crashif you get thrown through the windshield of the car. Another major plus point is the fact that the Admiral has no head restraints. You can drive and talk with the rear seat passengers without having your vision blocked. And on top of that you don’t need an environmental badge. I have applied for my black badge. I‘ve already received two penalty points in Bremen because of a missing badge on my truck.
My truck is a delivery truck that had the test values which should
give it a green badge, but even though it has the best values it did not get this badge. Why? Because it is not on the list of the so-called “green badge cars”. So this is not a selction because of any particulate emission improvement programs: this is a plain sorting out of old and new vehicles. Stimulate the economy. Capitalism instead of improving the world. I’m for improving the world, yeah, but my world is not their world. My Admiral passes the Bundestag (Red: something like the Capitol building) and lays a layer of dust on it. And when they eventually ban old cars I wiil drive the Admiral with no license plates. And I‘m looking forward to the cop that stops me. But at the moment there‘s a slight problem. The Admiral stopped working, haaaaaa.... Hey, we tried everything to fix it - well my tuners/mechanics did. Even during my 5 weeks of time off in winter I worked on it and called people up every day: the project got out of hand. Now the entire engine is overhauled. All new gaskets, valves reground, new piston rings and, and, and ...
... I’ve been three times in Flensburg and always came back with a new old 6-cylinder engine. We now have made one engine out of three engines even though it had already been pretty messed up when I bought it. Now the engine is even more original than ever before. The carburetor has to be tuned 100 percent, not that easy to do... and now there are problems with the automatic transmission which is throttling the engine when driving. Now we have to keep investigating further ... Yeah, this is probably unusual that we have converted from gas fuel back to gasoline. Gas burns hotter and that was probably the reason why the valves of the cylinder head had exploded. For that car to still be running when I bought it is a miracle. Gas is death without any secutity. The Admiral makes sure that all the raw material on this planet is gone faster. Be thankful for this car! It is the car of the future! Let’s see what will follow. It will probably never really be finished because it is already done. I‘m not going to drive up at any car meet, fuck that. This will be my everyday car. I’ll be driving to the construction site with this one…
Steak
The Pool: It was still a long way to go until we got to the Steak Pool. People in bars that show you a tattoo of their own backyard pool encourage a lot more to build your own pool someday. You can not just work forever for other people. At some point you have to find the time to build your own. Honestly I do not know how it happened that this thing is done now. The construction time flew by like on drugs. As if it had never happened. When I look at some pictures or videos from the time when we were building it, I ask myself: is that really us in the photos? Is the pool really here in the house? In the beginning I drew several variations of a pool that would fit into the barn. The space within a closed area is always limited and most often doors, pillars and possibly electrical cables take a slice out of the of freedom in design. It took me about 1 year to agree on a final version, and then in the middle of the process a hip was turned into a corner in the shallow end with adjacent facewalls. Designing an entire year means to sit down and ask yourself what you really prefer to ride. How should a bowl turn out that will shock you 10 years further down the line? I did not want a pure backyard style pool anymore. Water has to be put into a backyard pool from time to time. This thing was supposed to be a bowl / pool combination in which you can also get technical when you skate The deep end is 7.5 feet deep with a 10-foot high Burnside bank. The shallow end ends with a depth of 5 feet. The waterfall is very long and not one you can push. Get your speed through the trannies or leave it. be The coping is PPC and it has turned very hard. When it was re-laid, I started with the first curve grinds on it without having grouted the joints.
Up until today not one corner has broken out of it. If you find good pool coping then you shouldn’t rework it later on. Even if it is very blunt, I would not put anything on it. You have to work for your grinds! This applies to the entire Minus Ramps showroom. After a short visit from a couple of street kids one day, I even began to exchange a few stones. Apparently some leftover wax was still on their trucks. I can’t stand that. You have to lock in a pivot and a tailblock just has to work. We are not playing ice hockey are we! Back to the pool. apart from the desired shape and radius of the Steak Pool, the special side of it all is more likely the technical implementation of the pool.
Due to the high ground water levels I decided not to dig even one centimeter. Instead of that the whole pool was going to be built above the ground. Not one brick or some garbage like that was used in the entire pool. We started building a foundation ring underneath the flat. The ring was supposed to form a large circular standing space, a kind of base for the subsequent transitions. This had to be as large as possible in order to have enough surface area so thatit would not sag down or yield to the pressure later on in any direction. The Burnside bank connects right up to where I’m living. Right underneath that part is the bathrooms and the offices, so it would be disastrous if the construction starts to wander at some point.
The entire structure is free-standing and does not touch any main pillars or adjacent house walls. It is possible to go completely around underneath the transitions - 360 degrees. We shot the foundation walls as well as the transition. The entire ring is doubly reinforced. A third reinforcement mat combines the transitions. The walls are partially up to 80 cm of the purest triple reinforced shotcrete. This thing is going to stay in place for all eternity. In 200 to 300 years when we all have abdicated and my house and the region and the world have been forgotten, people will find this pool. I would like to see their faces. The steak pool weighs in despite its compact size with more than 200 tons. It is possibly the heaviest pool in the world in this size. Many thanks to Uli, Soup and the Minus Ramps construction crew - without them the pool would be completely different!
Matt ollies from the deepend into the pocket of the shallowend of the pool he built the barn next to his house - dream come true.
Matt tailblock on the ramp next to his pool.
Matt styles a front rock in the snake run during reconstruction of the Berg Fidel skatepark in M端nster.
Randy Hansen Live at the Hot Jazz club
If you like Jimy Hendrix and have not seen Randy Hansen you missed something Here´s some photos from a recent Randy Hansen gig at the Hot Jazz Club in Münster.Hansen is palying Jimy Hendrix songs since the mid 70´s and has mastered the craft of playing and looking a lot like Jimy without being the usual copycat. Check out a gig when Randy plays in a town near you. Photography by gerdrieger.com
SPOTCHECK
Photos: gerdrieger.com
Velbert is a small town somewhere between Wuppertal and D端sseldorf and the Minus Ramps crew started out this years building season with this nice bowl structure with some steep trannies, spine and pool coping in some parts of the bowl. When you read the Velbert Bowl will be skateable, so make sure to stop by and slash some grinds on the pool coping.
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IMPRINT Editor in ChieF
Gerd Rieger (V.IS.d.P.) gerd@bailgun.com
Editor
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Layout
Hanne Wakker Axel Torschmied
TransLation
John Young - europeskate.com
Text
Axel Torschmied Hanne Wakker Laura Henrici
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Gerd Rieger - gerdrieger.com Axel Torschmied - torschmied.com
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