Construction Phase II

It’s been a while since our last blog, but that is mainly because we spent all the time on the construction site and are mostly too tired in the evenings for blogging. But we have come a long way during the last two weeks.

The whole skatepark is covered with rebars now which didn’t take us too long since we don’t have too much weird structures in the park besides the three corners and the half volcano around the tree. After that we started to build the curbs and ledges and we used all the bricks we had left for that. This process partly came out kinda complicated, especially for the up and down ledge on the funbox, but we’re not here to win a beauty contest rather than to build a decent and skateable skatepark. And we’re on a good way doing so, besides that screwed up is the new straight.

At the same time Flori welded all the steal for the curbs and the tubes for the coping which we got bended really cheap with a strange hundred year old machine supposedly the only one of its kind in southern Costa Rica. So after four days of mixing concrete and building curbs we poured the first parts of the park, namely the top of the curbs and ledges. We are quite satisfied with the finish especially when you think of the burning sun that makes the concrete react really fast. And we won’t talk about the 2cm-rocks in the concrete mixture…

Meanwhile the packages arrived that Skate Aid sent us with the forms for the pool coping that Flori has succesfully tested. No we can really put pool coping in two parts of the park. Ali got his photo development equipment so he spends most of his free time developing all the films he shot with his multiple self-made camera obscuras, he’s a real artist after all. Even more we now have all the all the second hand blank boards Petzi already had prepared back home with the help from Gladis and Duun (THANKS A LOT!). So when we give them to the kids they can all design their own board graphic, it’s all about useful workshops so to say. And we got lots of trucks and wheels from Skate Aid, too, so when the park is finished all the poor kids who don’t have one can loan one fort he day.

Speaking about the finished park, we’re progressing and are holding the schedule quite well. Today we poured the first premixed concrete out of the truck and did the flat of the miniramp. We started kinda modest with three cubicmetres, because we wanted to see what kind of stuff we get and have to deal with. It’s gonna work for the flats so far and for the next days we will always order a full truck to save money, since every single truck costs money, and to progress fast with building. Too bad Flori is already leaving us on Thursday aka flying home. Because with him we will lose an important worker, and it’s not that we’re too many anyway. Further than that who is gonna deal with all the problems our car, that doesn’t even deserve the name car, has in store for us on a regular basis. So until the next blokes from Europe arrive at the 9th of March we have to get the locals more into helping us. Because with the exception of Adolfo, Roberto, Oskar and William they’re still not really showing up and helping. Well, most of them are in school until 5pm and today there showed up some new guys we didn’t even know before. And two of them, Elliot and Diego, proved to be very helpful and willing to learn. All in all we’re on a good way, though we still have the hardest part in front of us. The next three weeks will be pretty intense, especially because the scorching sun really melts your head during the day.

But we won’t complain, just think about the people back home in Europe longing for spring to come. So last weekend there were two little roadtrips for us folks to calm down for a minute. Flori and Petzi drove to a skate/BMX/graffiti happening with Ricardo, Adolfo and three graffiti dudes from San José. Two hours north of San José a skater has built a wicked skatepark in his parents backyard, just look at the photos for proof. On Saturday they mostly had rain, but on Sunday Petzi managed to win the skate contest in his league, the ‚especiales’. It was only four starters, but anyway he came home 35.00 colones richer which is about 60 dollars.

The rest of the bunch drove to the beach once more, this time further south to Uvita where the ocean is warm like a hot tub, the waves are worldclass and monkeys climb the trees. Later that night we met Antonio Rama, a one of a kind surfer/skater/snowboarder and soul survivor, who built a small skatepark in Uvita a couple of years ago. That dude is hard to put in words, though he told us the craziest stories all the time. Next Friday he has a show with his band and we really have to go there, because the dude is unbelievable. And his music probably, too, after all he put out some freetslye raps that night. One banana, one banana, one banana, one banana, six foot, seven foot, eight foot – punch.

So there’s some really weird and interesting people out here in Costa Rica, we are at the right place and in good company as you can imagine. Speaking of that we’re gonna tell you more about the progress of the skatepark and other unexpected events quite soon. This is the real life – pura vida!

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