The Concrete Monster: DIY Skate Spot in Vienna

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the last post, here's The Concrete Monster in a Vienna cellar.  In that last post, we learned that turning old R.J. Reynolds cigarette factory in Winston-Salem, NC into the Wake Forest Biotech place took 20-some years and $350 million.  This DIY (Do It Youself) skate spot took Philippe Schuster and a handful of friends two months of hard work.  It started with an idea that morphed into a plan.  As they say, there was no initial budget, no focus groups, no city council meetings, no permits.  Just a bunch of guys with shovels and determination. 

The term "DIY" started getting thrown around a lot in the late 70's and early 80's punk rock scene.  Nobody wanted the punkers to play in their clubs, so they found their own places to play.  No one wanted to make their records, so they learned how to record and make records on their own.  No magazines wanted to cover their scenes, so they self-published Xerox zines to cover their own scene. 

But as the old skater explains, skateboarding was a Do It Yourself thing from the start.  The first skateboards were old boards with roller skate wheels nailed on, hand made by Southern California surfers in the late 1950's.  "Sidewalk surfing" was something to do while the waves were flat.  Within a few years, sidewalk surfing evolved into its own thing, skateboarding.  There has been a DIY ethic in skating, and all the action sports, since the beginning. 

This project is a great example of what a handful of friends on a mission can do with an unused space in an old building, an a lot of sweat and determination.  I love this video, brought to you, of course, by Red Bull, who's been backing weirdness since the 90's.