In Germany, there’s a place where you’ll regularly find questionable characters up to mischief, it usually stinks of piss in the corners, red light ladies pursue their trade and bums are sound asleep on dirty mattresses scattered about. Contrary to this, you’ll usually find several quality skate spots at these same locations throughout Holland. We're talking about train stations! As with so many things, the Dutch simply do things differently and, above all, better. Modern architecture and bright colors give the environment of Dutch stations a much more inviting ambience and since you can usually even skate there legally, you might wonder if skating was intended to happen here. Skateboarders simply enliven any place and they may make it a little less inviting for junkies and bums. So, as part of the "TITUS Destroy the Spot" series, we were drawn to the Amsterdam-Sloterdijk station on the second weekend of September 2021, where there’s a true variety of spots right in the vicinity.
TITUS "Destroy the spot" | Amsterdam
Three spots around the Amsterdam-Sloterdijk station destroyed
We started at a long, slightly curved ledge without a real landing and there was a bit of confusion at first. We didn't really get the idea to approach from one side and then the other until later in the day. Regardless, the Dutch seem to have a mentality that doesn't allow them to swear or get upset by other skaters. It's quite possible to lose your nerve when you approach the ledge ten times without actually getting an attempt. The Dutch just know how to relax. I was especially happy to see Rob Roulaux, Marcel Veldman and Tim Zom, because not just tricks are important at such an event - the cultivation of good friendships is part of the lasting experience of such a "competition".
The second spot was a fountain not even 50 meters away. The hustle relaxed a bit since it was only skated in one direction. First it was a matter of approaching from the well and just making something happen. Unfortunately, I missed a perfect backside 360 by Keet Oldenbeuving. After a while the skaters tightened up a bit and then it was a matter of jumping in from the low side and out again on the high side in a line. Here Tim Zom was clearly my man, who landed a manual Fs 180 out as one of the most challenging tricks of the day. Bart and Jan also gave it their all as you can see from the photo sequences. Shortly before it was over, I went with Rob to the last spot: A steep 13-stair rail.
Here, once again, it was confirmed that skateboarding has a certain group dynamic. You might guess the slight irony of this sentence. But, where others would say "who wants to skate a 13 stair rail in a contest?", Dutch skaters just reply like "Fuck yeah, I'm in"! Chris Hoeve took a hard slam on his third 50/50 attempt but got up and stomped his trick on the fourth attempt. After a lipslide, Lars de Weert needed a few tries, but then dared to jump into a Fs Salad. Unlucky of the day was Reemy Aniceta, who landed a 360 Flip on his first try after an Ollie. A few tries later he landed another one, broke his board and tried again with a borrowed one. Unfortunately, he suffered a severe heel bruise, so he had to give up. The stoke was nevertheless extremely high and everyone celebrated him almost as much as the winners announced afterwards. It also showed how much the guys celebrated the newest Titus Pro Jelle Maatman, who definitely had to be in the winner's picture. Shortly after, I hurried to catch my train back to Münster - to a train station without a single skate spot.
