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Skating Netherlands

Written by Alpha06
Monday, 19 October 2009
Monday morning, the clock strikes 9. I get up, put my clothes on, brush my teeth and head outside. I step on my longboard, and get on the skate lane that runs parallel to the vehicle lane all throughout the city. As I pass through the city itself, I stop at various street lights dedicated solely to managing the flow of skateboards. I greet my fellow skaters, (of which there are tens of thousands scattered all throughout), and push my longboard like a madman as usual as I travel to class. Sounds good doesn’t it? A bit too good, like something out of a Disney movie? Well…that’s because I’m full of wishful thinking (read: crap). My fellow “skaters” are actually all on bikes. I traverse lanes dedicated to cycling and no such street lights for longboarders exist…I am obligated to follow street signs and traffic lights meant for the biking population. What this makes me is somewhat of a rare specimen, perhaps even an anomaly. Where this puts me is in a place called Groningen, a student city in the Netherlands with a population of 150,000, which just happens to makes 57% of all its trips via bicycle. I can say with certainty that I am one among very few that actually wear a helmet in this city (as well as skate), but then again, I am a skater residing in a bikers world. And while my fellow bikers choose to sit comfortably on a bike with gel-infused seats, suspension shocks, and other creature comforts, I have chosen to propel myself in a rather basic manner we are all familiar with: via standing on a 40 inch plank of wood (or weed if you ride bamboo) containing 4 small wheels, some bearings and a set of Randal trucks. I could end this article right here, and leave you with a very vague impression of this little city I am in, but that would do little justice to showing just how unique of an experience skating here really is. One thing your probably wondering is: are there hills? The answer to that is: Groningen (like most of the Netherlands) is almost entirely flat. Actually, calling it completely flat would be a lie. There’s a few hills in Groningen that reach around 15-20mph, but they are short, boring, and located in really weird places. Like the manmade hill built on top of a supermarket in a soccer stadium…uhhhh…it’s a dutch thing…see the picture below If you’ve made it this far into the article I’d like to tell you about the weather and the roads here in Groningen. Basically, the weather here sucks. Even the locals complain about it. One minute you are standing outside not even close to sober, eating a pizza…the next minute you are standing outside wet, still not even close to sober, eating a wet, soggy pizza. Mostly everyone that has a bike here uses it in the rain, and they all end up riding on a soaked seats. Being a self proclaimed hardcore fanboy of skating who hates walking, I refuse to allow the weather to force me into a biking lifestyle, so I adapt. I’ve added a space age (read: draconian) attachment to the front of my deck which allows me to skate in the rain without getting my shoes totally soaked or my pants totally drenched. I also find that some Bones Swiss or MileHighSkates bearings hold up to wet conditions pretty damn well. As for the roads, there are biking lanes everywhere in the city. There are varying road types here but the majority are fine for skateboard travel. Occasionally you get the bumpy brick type stuff, usually in alleyways and side-roads. I’d say that around 85-90% of the roads here are viable for travel via skateboard. Another thing I’d like to talk about is the biking culture in Groningen. The first time I saw it, I was completely floored. It’s really quite amazing to see so many people embracing a healthy, green lifestyle. Bikes are so big here, they are included in art/sculptures around the city Groningen even has its own bike park! The “park” stores over 4000 bikes which are monitored 24/7 (yes bikes get stolen a lot around here). There are many more places in the city which store huge amounts of bikes, and its interesting to note that the city itself prioritizes cycling over vehicles as well. Check out the video below to see my ride through the bike park! One thing I get told here often is that I don’t need to wear my helmet. The safety laws here don’t require individuals of any age to wear any kind of protective material on their bodies. The bikes just need to have some sort of lighting at night. In the end portion of the video above little kids are transported via bikes with no helmets on, which is a bit worrying to me, since accidents do happen (I’ve seen a few myself). So with that being said, emphasis here is placed on another type of safety which most skaters are pretty fond of… As for skate shops, there is one shop here that sells longboards. The shop seen below isn’t it, even though you’d expect a shop by the name of boardsports to actually carry some longboards eh? And it so happens that the shop with longboards only has two decks in stock. Can you guess what company? If you guessed Sector 9, nope. Its apparently all about Riviera decks here, with Paris trucks and clones of EW Superballs. TisTisTis. The setup above costs 210 Euros, which equates to approximately $310 USD. Bikes here typically range from 25 Euros to 100 Euros. I hope you’ve found this article enlightening and somewhat interesting. To get a better feel for the city, check out the main video below. It makes visible what my words have failed to describe.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 October 2009 )