Cody Lockwood noseblunts atop years of exhausting work from the scene
Though this is likely to be the final time Södervik Mästare (Suvilahti DIY Championships) is going on in probably the most beneficiant DIY of the Nordics, there’s zero melancholy within the air. The extent of skateboarding is prodigious and the lineup is famous: Pat Duffy, Cody Lockwood Eniz Fazliov, Luca Karhu, Ginger, Marius Syvänen, Mathias Torres, J-Nor, Lepi, Huxi and Heini are ripping Suvilahti. Native bands Mary Ann Hawkins, Pippuri, Deep, and Khat Moses take the hype to different dimensions. The group absorbs every second like there’s no tomorrow—which is likely to be the case if town of Helsinki adheres to its plan, to tear the enduring DIY down and allocate the house to an enormous leisure middle. The longer term is all the time unsure, however constructing spots and skating them along with your scene will all the time be timeless. Meet up with a number of the large gamers and scroll by all of the hits from this yr’s blast. —Pauliina Toivanen
From the heats to the speedruns, the locals at Suvilahti feed their DIY a little bit of that everlasting stoke
Interviews by Pauliina Toivanen
Marius, Cody and Melos, doesn’t it creep into your thoughts that this is likely to be the final session at Suvilahti?
Marius Syvänen: I didn’t discover that this is likely to be the final occasion at Suvilahti. I used to be too hyped to even suppose, simply stoked to skate and roll with the homies. No time to be unhappy at Södervik. It is not going to be the final.
Cody Lockwood: Sure and no. It’s not over till it’s over. The town will hopefully notice that there are methods to work collectively to avoid wasting the park. And if not, we’ll discover new spots and construct repeatedly and once more.
Arttu Melos: I’ve thought this is likely to be the final Södervik Mästare for thus a few years, so I put all in each time. It’s the day I’ve been ready for. All of the shitty planning has one way or the other labored. Each time the occasion ends, I can not imagine that our homies’ little joke a few competitors figuring out the champion of Suvilahti DIY gathered this many individuals collectively. It means a lot to me.
Any final phrases to the choice makers of Helsinki?
MS: The park needs to be protected as a result of it is a nationwide monumental zone for Finland and for skaters and for artists from all over the world, to return collectively and revel in themselves. The park will not be going wherever.
CL: You possibly can destroy our efforts, however you possibly can’t destroy our stoke. The DIY—aka do it with the assistance of anybody keen to assist—ethos is rising stronger each day. It received prolonged a yr already so we simply must preserve preventing to put it aside.
Heini Luotola: An incredible quantity of power is all the time round in Suvilahti. Loopy skateboarding occurs that may give you such a lift, decide you again up from a sinkhole of melancholy and make you bear in mind once more what this life is about. It’s about time to begin utilizing creativeness in metropolis planning and make clear what’s vital to a human.
Suvilahti DIY, situated within the industrial milieu of Helsinki, Finland, has confronted the specter of demolition for almost its total 12-year existence. This yr, town of Helsinki arrange an precise destruction date for the first of September, 2023. Nonetheless, the lively locals of the Suvilahti DIY extended the method by submitting a criticism to the executive courtroom of Helsinki. They even employed a vice choose to supervise the case and help the neighborhood in preserving and safeguarding the monumental DIY created by over 100 volunteers.
The story is simply too acquainted—the native skaters constructed a DIY skatepark in an deserted industrial space, which then grew to become a valued focus of subculture and humanities. The town manufacturers the world as its new hip and concrete maritime district. The tallest non-public residential constructing in the whole nation rises subsequent to the DIY. And, as soon as it reaches its most top and ravages the sealine, town decides to assign the entire plot surrounding it, a part of which the skaters are renting from town to a mass leisure manufacturing unit—that nobody needs or wants in that location.
Along with having a free house the place everybody can skate and discover ways to construct transitions and bowls out of concrete, the Suvilahti DIY neighborhood has been defending the significance of a gathering place that welcomes you as you’re, irrespective of when you’ve got no cash nor wonderful clothes. Of their criticism, they level out that in accordance with Finnish regulation, building plans ought to create and protect cultural and socio-economical values. How does pushing away the native volunteers who’ve made the world so engaging then constructing a brand new colossal occasion hub with providers unaffordable to a lot of the locals assist these requirements?
By now, the neighborhood is aware of it’s higher to dwell like every little thing already labored out than simply resist. If town respects the authorized course of throughout which there isn’t any proper to the touch the park, Södervik Mästare will ship it once more subsequent summer time. Due to this fact, the everlasting building of the DIY continues, minding the eight months of winter—that are for planning what you possibly can construct in the event you lived in a area the place there’s gentle each day, the sky will not be the colour of lonkero and the bottom will not be frozen.
How do you save a DIY? Check out the Södervik Masters. Then see for your self subsequent yr on the thirteenth of July, 2024!
Pictures and captions by KEKE Leppala
That is probably the most wished trophy on this planet, in the event you ask the locals. However earlier than all of the mayhem begins, let’s rewind again a couple of days when a number of the preparations began on the park
Locals paint the park annually. This time it’s a free DIY jam for artist homies to do their magic
Two days of artwork
Subsequent gen studying from the perfect
The city campsite
Thanks, guys!
Pablo De Juan Conejo was the primary to check the freshly-painted yard birds
The primary ever Södervik Mästare champion, Ginger, aka Jonas Bunger, arrived simply in time for the night warmup sesh
Ping pong to sit back issues earlier than the mayhem
Good morning, Suvilahti DIY—The Pearl of Helsinki!
INEE INEE! As locals say
Cody was the primary to blast off and kickstart the warmups
Heini Luotola follows swimsuit
Mary Ann Hawkins opened the Södervik Mästare occasion by enjoying a gig from a cruising automotive across the car parking zone
Melos confirmed the trophy across the park. Now, off we go
Södervik Mästare begins off from the “Outdated City” nook the place the historical past of the park began again in 2011. Eniz Fazliov again noseblunt all the best way throughout
Ville Lepistö, aka Lepi, alley-ooping past the hole
Coping fell off, however Eniz finds a correct use for it
All eyes on Ginger as he crooks to fakie, simply one of many many bangers he hit on this impediment
Cody goes in for a frontside nosegrind over the pizza oven…
…and finishes the session with a entrance blunt that ought to persuade everybody watching to avoid wasting Suvilahti DIY. Take a look at that surreal backdrop!
Subsequent up, the nook session. Mathias Torres will get his criminal
One of many many from the staff Boo, Lepi with a frontside flip
It’s packed alright! Pat Duffy with a again tail shove
Cris Navarrete frontside noseslides and crisscrosses his fellow Chilean
Marius, bottom tailslide. Undecided what occurred with the deal with this one. Digital camera most likely wished the “Save Suvilahti DIY” to be in focus! Sorry, bro!
Jonne Nordlund, aka J-Nor, with a hefty frontside flip
Rapper Pippuri’s (Pepper in English) energetic gig earlier than the subsequent function
Chia Duffy made a Suvilahti DIY Kimchi to assist the park
Channel Rail warmup with Pippuri. Cody rips a nosegrind, straightforward. Enjoyable reality: The massive gasometer within the background is probably the most recognizable monument of the Suvilahti space
Identical spot, totally different angle
Ginger with a base showoff bottom ollie
Final yr’s Södervik Mästare winner Luca Karhu aiming to resume the title with a again tail over the hole
It’s gonna be exhausting, as Cody retains killing it with strikes like this head-high stalefish
Identical fish, totally different vantage level
Pat Duffy, again Smithing all the best way
Frontside boneless by Lepi
Good instances for Marius, again 5-0
Warming up with entrance noseblunt
Ginger closeup, going quick…
…and nosegrinding
FSA over the solar
Backlip over the channel. “In ten years, Suvilahti goes to be sicker than ever! Each summer time there’s new additions constructed. So in that point, it’s gonna be gnar” —Marius
Luca Karhu, rock stable—you can be listening to extra of this man!
Cody unlocks the channel spot with noseblunt flip out
Off to the largest quarterpipe, Cody once more with an enormous FSA
Age will not be a restrict to Pat, as he is nonetheless quick on planting his toes
Possibly the youngest gun within the competitors, Liro Huhta. Fairly certain he desires the title sometime
Huxi, bottom lip revert. The distinction with the backdrop is indescribable
Luca attempting to plant a hand on a 35-story constructing
Huxi returns for a again tail revert
Gasoline-up tail for the homies
Questioning if there was a trick Cody didn’t do to this one. BSNB
Classics from Luca. Karhu means bear in Finnish
Huxi loves this spot, frontside alley-oop to again lip
Mouth open broad!
Lepi over the gang
G for GO, time for the velocity race!
Finals with Cody and Eniz in a brutal head-to-head!
Good sport, good sport!
Congrats, Cody!
You recognize what’s up
For P-Stone!
Thanks, homies!
Love,
Peace,
Information. See you once more thirteenth July 2024!
