Text by Michael Buhl Jonassen
First and foremost building a trash park is easy.
It just takes hard work, a little money, some good friends and a lot of partying, blading and good times. Christian told me about some of the reasons for building a park in the first place. Christian Berg thinks that “regular skateparks suck!”
Coming from a street skating background Christian is more interested in a park that could reflect something like the streets. That’s where the trash park has its strengths. It looks like the street, skates like the street and hurts like the street. No protective plastic materials or rubber foam enabling you to backflip top-souls or nine hundred kindgrinds. Just hard gnarly gravel and rough concrete. Making it possible to meet up, get beat up and enjoy a cozy barbeque while you suck up the pain and bleed.
Christian also hated the fact that regular parks are overcrowded and expensive. The trash park was built on friendship, low costs and a vision of doing something with what you have. Christian took the idea from several DIY skateboarding parks; especially one in Berlin near the area “Casiopia”.
That park is sort of a DIY park just next to the boring regular park. Making it even more obvious how much more cool it is to make it yourself instead of getting pre-fabricated materials of aluminum that slides like crap and cost a fortune
But moreover it’s a project that really reflects who Christian is as a person. He is a carpenter – that’s why he chose to build an entire park of concrete!? – and has through all the years I’ve known him been a creative and forthcoming person. He used to be into baggy jeans and short hair. But when Chris and fellow rollerblader Seth Nicolas had a rock ‘n’ roll day four or five years ago, Christian got hooked on the rock ‘n’ roll life style. As Christian puts it: “since that day I never turned back”. Christian is now renowned for his bad-ass style consisting of an array of shirts, long hair and creative rock ‘n’ roll skating. Supporting brands as Black Jack and SSM.
And building skateparks wherever he damn wants to…
