To escape the cold and ugly January days, a part of the SKATE.CH team headed to Barcelona. Noel, who loves to stay in warm temps, left shortly after Christmas, and the rest joined in the beginning of January. With perfect weather for the days, we moved around from spot to spot on the Metro, motivated.
Noel, Fabio & Simon checking the Footy
On the first day, Fabio got his camera out and filmed Simon and Noel warming up. They both pulled out lines and tricks right away. Ramon and Jan didn‘t want to warm up at any spots and immediately lured the rest to a harder spot.
Jan Hirt – Roll-On FS Feeble
On the second day we rolled around the Barceloneta area, a funny spot if you like bank spots. We got shut down by the police at the iconic red bank and got searched for drugs: no drugs, sadly no tricks at the spot either.
After a long curb session at the harbor we drove with a grumbling stomach in the direction of the hotel W. Or rather walked, after we all stumbled for the thousandth time over theworld famous Barcelona propellers and Sörfi has almost knocked down a passerby on his bike. With a brief stopover at Makamaka Burger, everyone was satisfied again.
After a long curb session at the harbor we hit the road towards Hotel W, walking that is, after Sörfi almost ran over a female cyclist with his board while tripping over a propeller for the thousandth time. A quick stop at Makamaka Burger made everyone happy again. Next spot Lenny joined us, who was traveling back from Portugal and wanted to celebrate Noel’s birthday with us. Saturday night in Barcelona and Noel turning 21 was a good enough reason to go out.
Hangover pop
With a “lazy” hangover from the birthday bash, we made our way to Fondo, where Jan recklessly jumped straight from the metro onto a handrail. After a 50/50 on the 5th try, he was so sure that a Smithgrind would have to work too. He totally missed the “lazy hangover pop” onto the rail and ended up crashing hard onto the pavement, shocking not only Jan himself. Lenny‘s comment: “I‘m glad I came to Barcelona to see this live!”
Fortunately, nothing serious happened. Soon after it started to rain and we called it a day, skate-wise at least.
A couple of drinks later on the way home from the club we crossed a gay bar and just wanted to take a look, but the bouncer denied us the entry because we didn’t belong there. Noel and Lenny didn’t take it sitting down and showed the bouncer the kiss of the century. The kiss not only convinced him to let them in, but he even bought them a couple of drinks.
The cop made up a language in response
Monday we skated around Sants. A long roll–on–grind where nobody knew what he wanted to do. So we did a back–to–back roll on 50/50 for an Instagram Story with Ramon, Noel and Jan. Shortly after we found an untouched spot with curbs, where Ramon did a stylish hippie jump over a trash can. While looking at the hippie jump the police drove up, because a resident had called them.The police asked if French, German or English. “German” said Fabio, “French” said Jan and Noel said “English works too”. The policeman then invented a language where you mix words from every language and no sentence made any sense. With hands and 7 different languages there was finally another backpack search before we were allowed to go home.
On the last day, Fabio and Jan put some pressure on the “Young Guns” because we still needed a good ending trick for the video. On the list were handrails, triple bank or 12 stairs. On the way to the triple bank, we found a chill downrail with a kicker, where Jan did a 50/50 with footbrake in between. The plan was to push it, but everyone thought footbrake was funnier.
Arrived at the triple bank Ramon knew exactly that this was his spot. With an unbelievable wallie BS 50/50 into the triple bank, he delivered his part for the day.
“Yeah so I’m gonna do the heelflip” Noel said after Ramon’s insane action. Twelve stairs over a railing was the spot, unfortunately, the sun was in a rather unfavorable position and Noel had to keep his nervous legs still for another hour. When the light was good enough for Fabio, Noel managed to land the perfect heelflip after 15 tries.
After that, we all knew that tonight would only be about partying. Everyone had delivered and everyone was tired and happy.