Berlin's Slipperiest Bank Might Be A Terrible Idea

There are spots in Berlin that make you think:

"This is perfect."

And then there are spots that make you think:

"This is a terrible idea."

Naturally, we went for the second one.

Another DOSE Sunday started at Berlin Südkreuz with Isidor, Tyron, Viktor, Norman and Vincent. The plan was simple: find some spots, skate for a few hours, film some clips and hopefully make it home without anyone needing an ambulance.

It didn't exactly go according to plan.

The First Spot Was Basically Right There

We had barely started skating when we found the first spot.

A mellow downhill section with little obstacles scattered around it, perfect for warming up and getting the legs moving.

No complaints.

No giant gaps.

No reason to question our life choices.

Yet.

We kept pushing towards the main destination: Kolonnenbrücke.

Of course, we didn't make it there directly.

Because that's not how skateboarding works.

You can have a destination, but if you see a wallride on the way, the destination suddenly becomes irrelevant.

A bridge wallride got everyone distracted.

Then a small street rail appeared.

A few quick tricks later, we were finally heading towards the main event.

Welcome To The Bank From Hell

The giant bank at Kolonnenbrücke looks fun.

That's the trap.

It's steep.

It's sketchy.

And it's ridiculously slippery.

The kind of spot where dropping in already feels like you've made a questionable decision.

Once you're on it, there isn't much time to reconsider.

You just have to go.

And then there is the ditch at the bottom.

Which is where several skateboards decided they would rather spend the afternoon.

The session quickly became a combination of skating, falling, running back up the bank and trying to pretend the last slam didn't hurt.

The bank was basically a giant piece of cardio equipment disguised as a skate spot.

Why Do We Keep Doing This?

This is probably one of the dumbest and best things about skateboarding.

Nobody looked at that bank and thought:

"What a comfortable place to spend Sunday afternoon."

We saw something difficult.

Something that looked slightly dangerous.

Something that probably wasn't going to work the first time.

And obviously, that made it more interesting.

That's the entire disease.

You see an obstacle and immediately start thinking about how you could possibly skate it.

Even when your brain is saying:

Don't.

Your skateboarding brain is already asking:

What if I just...

Then Come The Cyclists

The bank sits right next to a busy bike path, which meant the session came with an additional challenge:

Don't get hit by a cyclist.

And don't hit a cyclist.

A surprisingly difficult combination when people are flying down a steep bank next to a path.

After enough chaos, we moved over to a nearby ledge and continued the session in the sun.

More tricks.

More lines.

A few quick Q&As.

Basically, a normal Berlin Sunday.

One More Spot

By the end of the day, everyone was getting tired.

So naturally, we went to another spot.

The final stop was the E-Lock Bowl near Ostkreuz.

Small.

Empty.

And exactly what we needed after spending the afternoon repeatedly running up a giant slippery bank.

For Tyron, it was the perfect way to finish the day.

While the sun started disappearing, the session turned into a little transition session before everyone finally called it.

Another Sunday.

Another collection of questionable decisions.

Good spots.

Bad ideas.

Scraped skin.

And a lot of skateboarding.

That's DOSE.