Automobilen Skatepark Falkenberg | Skateboarding Historical past

Automobilen: The Forgotten Skateboarding Monument is streaming now on SVT Play That is at the moment restricted to customers inside Sweden, but a world launch shall be communicated quickly that can embrace full English subtitles.

Thanks for dropping by, this story is split into 6 chapters and is a recount of an iconic misplaced 70’s skatepark that has been forgotten from skateboarding historical past. Throughout 2022 I launched a podcast episode that entails a lot of what now we have documented right here. In the event you favor following alongside in audio kind then please stream right here.

This story begins on a median spring day and when spring comes round in Sweden you begin to get fairly stoked, the climate will get hotter and you can begin to consider skateboarding exterior. For anyone that doesn’t dwell in colder climates they dump these small rocks down on the bottom throughout winter as an anti-slip mechanism, you may’t skateboard on the streets or do something, you have to go to indoor parks throughout the winter months. So throughout spring they take away this stuff, the leaves begin to come out, birds are chirping and it is an actual interval that you simply get this pep for all times. I suppose you’re feeling just like the winter’s over and there is some hope now that the spring is right here, gearing up for the summer time months forward. So it is a type of spring afternoons and i am on Google Maps searching for some skate spots. Now, I do not actually like the fashionable skating model i’ve by no means been excellent at it however as a child I surfed loads so the surf skate model is one thing that I actually favor to do. It is all the time like placing gold once you discover a good ditch or financial institution, even a drain, it is the proper panorama to do carving, turns and all these kinds of issues. In order that was my ambition, scoping round on the West Coast of Sweden, searching for something that caught out.

After burning two and a half hours doing this I managed to identify what appeared like a giant pile of concrete. Now there is a city on the Southwest Coast of Sweden referred to as Falkenberg and it is not an enormous city it is extra of a Summer time spot and that is the place the pile of concrete was positioned. It wasn’t instantly within the metropolis of Falkenberg it’s kind of exterior in a spot referred to as Olofsbo. There was a Google pin on the situation however no data was current, it simply mentioned that it was a historic landmark, so this received my curiosity going. It was additionally slightly unusual as a result of it was on a rustic property, there have been a couple of homes round it and it appeared to me like a junkyard.

Earlier than happening and checking it out, I contacted a man who lives in that space and requested him, “have you learnt what that is?” I despatched him by a screenshot from my telephone and he received again to me fairly quick confirming it was a skatepark. He mentioned that it was a spot the place loads of Swedish youngsters within the 70’s and 80’s realized the way to skateboard, so for me that was actually fascinating as a result of this have to be a reasonably iconic skatepark. So now it was confirmed I wanted to go down and test it out and throughout the spring of 2021 that is precisely what I did.

So I am driving down from Sweden’s second largest metropolis Gothenburg and I’ve received the coordinates locked in my telephone. I am getting nearer and the very first thing I see is a non-public driveway. The map’s telling me I ought to drive in there, so I am going in and after I arrive there’s a few guys out the entrance performing some yard work. They checked out me actually suspiciously and one man comes over and he begins to speak. Now this man was the proprietor, he had acquired the property solely round a yr in the past and he was performing some preparations for house development. He comes over and he is fairly pleasant and I requested him “i’ve seen on the map that there’s a skatepark right here, am i able to test it out?” He mentioned “yeah that is nice a couple of individuals come by right here now and again to examine this place out”, so I immediately was pondering wow that is one thing particular. He mentioned to me “it will be fairly tough to skate as a result of it is filled with water” so i am beginning to get fairly disillusioned however was actually curious. It is very surreal, I am gonna strive the as greatest as I can to clarify what it felt like after I noticed this place for the primary time.

I get out of the automobile after which begin weaving previous what virtually appear like farmers sheds, they’re rusted and there is stuff in all places, together with deserted automobiles, there’s caravans, there’s loads of junk. Then out of the blue I see this u-pipe and it was simply the body. It is rusted, timber are rising over it, it was trying in actually unhealthy form. From there my imaginative and prescient steered away and I see a very dilapidated outdated set of stairs that leads as much as a rickety boardwalk. The steps are rotted, there’s beams lacking out of the out of the steps and i am simply hoping that I do not fall by and all this shit lands on prime of me. As soon as I managed to make my method up the steps onto the boardwalk I overlook this outdated 70’s model snake run.

It isn’t enormous, however it’s fairly deep, in a pretzel form and is clearly not from this period. What’s surrounding it’s simply bush, entangled in weeds and timber. I am pondering “why is that this factor right here, it is so misplaced”. The development is so iconic, you have have these transitions which are actually steep and sketchy and within the centre you will have this dip, it virtually appears to be like like a giant pothole or donut you can roll into. It’s wonderful and my first expertise of this place was like one thing from an Indiana Jones movie. I bear in mind saying to myself “fuck, how has this place simply fallen off the map when these outdated skateparks are so uncommon, there’s not a lot of them left on this planet”.

So after I am taking it in I get actually disillusioned, as a result of it’s because the proprietor mentioned the entire thing is unskateable. it is fully engulfed in water, there’s branches, there’s mud there’s a lot crap poking out of it. It appears to be like just like the Loch Ness Monster’s gonna come up and fucking snatch you once you begin proper down into it, it is simply an absolute mess. There’s additionally enormous cracks within the concrete and the terrain is tremendous tough. So I am standing there and I am pondering “it is wonderful nevertheless it additionally appears to be like like shit” and my thoughts is racing “how has it been left to get up to now”. So the proprietor comes again over, he is simply form of checking up on me I suppose as a result of I’m on his land. We had a dialog in regards to the park and he clearly understood a few of it is worth. He mentioned to me that in some unspecified time in the future he was going to revive it however you by no means know, should you’re not a skater your self it is slightly onerous to actually take these kind of issues in and see their true worth. The skatepark can also be on fairly a giant chunk of his land so if he’s doing growth I used to be feeling slightly anxious that it might be bulldozed like so many skateparks earlier than it.

So understanding I could not skate it I ended up pulling out my telephone and took some photographs and movies. I needed some proof of this place, as I had a sense that it is days had been numbered. I did not know something about when it was constructed, I solely knew from the man that I had contacted, that if youngsters had been skating it within the 70’s it needs to be a reasonably outdated skatepark and up there with a few of these iconic ones from from that period.

After taking some documentation and having a chat with the proprietor I received within the automobile and I drove again residence. I did not actually do the rest about this place for not less than six months, however this skatepark was on my thoughts, it was caught in my reminiscence, daily I might give it some thought. I had the images and movies on my telephone and it sounds corny nevertheless it felt like this place was in a roundabout way attempting to succeed in out to me, I felt actually linked to it. In order i am letting it mull over in my head for months I received so curious that I wanted to perform a little research and check out to determine as a lot about this place as I presumably may.

So my first actions taken in doing analysis had been some primary searches, now the knowledge that I had was it was referred to as Automobilen and it was a snakerun, so clearly I looked for these two issues. A few outcomes popped up, the primary one is a Swedish website, and the very first thing that struck me from the knowledge was the truth that it mentioned Automobilen was the primary business skate park to be inbuilt Sweden. So proper there after which I used to be like okay that is actually essential. The second factor is it talked about that Tony Alva rode the snakerun throughout his first European Tour in 1978. So now I had this date of 1978 and I am pondering, all proper that is fairly outdated and that stacks up fairly nicely in comparison with among the oldest skateparks nonetheless present. There’s a few different photographs on this website, there was some extra trendy pictures taken from early 2000’s of when the skatepark did look in significantly better form than it does now and there was additionally some outdated photos that had been taken from newspaper clippings. But other than that there wasn’t an excessive amount of different data on-line.

I jumped onto Instagram and in addition Fb and there may be sporadically a few photos that individuals have put up, but not a lot data round it. I had the thought of getting onto Fb and creating a bunch I additionally managed to search out some outdated Swedish skateboarding teams, i joined these and mainly simply began posting the photographs that I had present in an try and get some curiosity and discover out extra data. This truly had an excellent affect, one man despatched by some photographs that his father had taken in 1979, another photographs that had been despatched by had been from round 85 or 86. Then there have been some photographs from the early 2000’s as much as 2010. I additionally found some movies, certainly one of which is the Swedish Skateboarding Championships that had been held in 1997 that passed off on the Automobilen Snakerun.

Other than getting some nice photographs and hyperlinks to some movies, I used to be despatched by a hyperlink to an article speaking in regards to the increase of skateboarding within the 1970’s in Sweden. This text was referred to as the Concrete Wave written by Gunner Almavik. There is a temporary paragraph on this article that mentions the Automobilen Snakerun and I managed to get some actually good data from it. I received a date of when it was constructed and that was 1978, there was additionally another photographs on that article. One was of the the u-pipe that was taken in 2011 and it was clearly in horrible form then as you may see the damaged Plexiglas that also existed at that time. Once I checked it out in 2021 there was only a body left. Additionally featured on this article was the unique plan of the snakerun that was submitted as part of the constructing allow software.

After ending the Concrete Wave article I needed to take a look at the place this skatepark stacked up in opposition to different parks all through the world that also exists from this period. I naturally began looking out round Europe and the very first thing that popped up was The Rom skatepark within the UK. What struck me was the truth that The Rom was inbuilt 1978 and there was an article from a English Newspaper stating that this park had gained a Grade II Itemizing, which signifies that it had been recognised as being a historic landmark and was truly protected. This was an actual eye-opener for me as a result of The Rom was inbuilt the very same yr as Automobilen, The Rom’s been protected, it has been restored and individuals are nonetheless skating it to this present day, but a stones throw away there’s one other 1970’s skatepark in Sweden with this similar sort of significance that is simply rotting and fully deserted. The data that I pulled collectively from what I may discover off these few websites and the media that I had pulled collectively from the Fb group, I believed let’s try to have a little bit of a stab at the hours of darkness and get in touch with a few skateboarding magazines which will take an curiosity on this. I received a very quick reply from Confusion Skateboarding Journal and I received a response from the editor Jonathan Hay and he was pumped and thought it was a fantastic concept to place collectively an on-line article in regards to the skatepark. I used to be simply grateful that any individual else thought it was a cool story. So understanding that Confusion was going to publish this in an article it was actual go time for me to dive into the skateparks historical past.

The primary place I began with my analysis was looking for outdated newspaper articles about Automobilen. As I discussed there’s very restricted data on-line so I believed that this might be one of the simplest ways to try to put among the items of the puzzle collectively and fill out the article as greatest i may. I managed to search out an internet newspaper database and this database was run by the Kings Library in Stockholm. Now once you’re looking out this database it is slightly tough as a result of you may’t truly get the total article in entrance of you, you enter key phrases and you then get these little extracts. These extracts will simply point out elements of the sentence through which match the key phrases that you simply searched for thus I needed to maintain it fairly primary and I used to be simply looking for something round “skateboarding”, the identify “Automobilen”, “snakerun” and the situation in “Falkenberg”. I narrowed it all the way down to 1978 which was useful in limiting the quantity of outcomes that had been proven. So i am searching by and there wasn’t too many outcomes, I believe i would scrolled by about two or three pages earlier than I received successful. There was a small extract mentioning the situation in “Falkenberg” and “Automobilen”. I knew that this needed to be one thing that was speaking in regards to the snakerun. So from there it’s a must to undergo the method of ordering the articles they usually arrived in round one week.

So whereas I am ready for these articles to be despatched by, I received one other tip coming from a skate boarders group on Fb and it talked about that there was a man who was making a documentary in regards to the snakerun and his identify was Jonathan Lomar. I received his contact particulars and despatched him an e-mail asking how he was going with the documentary. I discussed the truth that I used to be additionally trying into the snakerun as a result of I went down there the earlier yr and I used to be actually taken again by it. Jonathan received again to me fairly quick and was stoked that there was slightly bit extra curiosity producing about this place. We had a little bit of a dialogue over e-mail and I despatched him by a bunch of stuff that I used to be trying into and in addition among the photographs and knowledge that I discovered. He talked about to me that there was a push to have the park listed as a historic landmark again in 2008 which was truly submitted on behalf of the identical man who wrote the article the Concrete Wave, his identify was Gunner, together with one other particular person referred to as Lars-Eric Jönsson, they submitted an software to the native council. So what was stunning was the applying was rejected stating that the skatepark was solution to dilapidated to be listed as a historic landmark. I believed this was insane, the entire motive it must be listed as a historic landmark is in order that it may be protected and restored and it would not decay anymore. It simply appeared actually convoluted and a little bit of a bullshit response so I used to be much more pissed off at that time and the truth that the native council clearly did not give two shits about it. They’d be pleased for it to take a seat on non-public land and decay and in the meantime the identical councils are constructing different trendy parks for lots of of hundreds of {dollars} however for them to truly shield one thing from the 1970’s this distinctive they usually will not do this I believed it was simply complete garbage.

After a number of conversations with Jonathan I managed to get the articles despatched by from the King’s Library in Stockholm. Now this was actually thrilling as they despatched by a PDF that contained the entire newspaper from the place these articles existed. I begin scrolling by, scrolling by not likely seeing something that is related after which increase there was this massive article and movie of the Automobilen Snakerun. It featured a man sitting on the underside of the snakerun on extra of a profile view and behind him there’s a few youngsters which are doing methods. The little caption beneath mentioned it was the proprietor and his identify was Olle Andersson. So now that I’ve received the identify of the proprietor who constructed this factor, it felt like a couple of extra items of the puzzle had been beginning to match.

In order I am studying this one particular article it gave some actually good data. The very first thing which was actually stunning was the truth that the proprietor had no concept about skateboarding till two weeks earlier than he submitted an software for the constructing allow. There was additionally some data with regard to the place the skatepark is positioned. As I discussed earlier it is positioned simply exterior of a city referred to as Falkenberg on the Southwest Coast of Sweden however the place being referred to as Automobilen, is not important to the precise snakerun. Automobilen is in reference to the truth that the property was initially a lodge / roadhouse and it was a lodge when the skatepark was constructed. That wasn’t the one factor it was, it was a nightclub, go-kart monitor and it was an entire bunch of different small little companies, so it was form of this mismatch of issues and the snakerun was simply one other a type of compliments to the place.

Realizing slightly little bit of historical past in regards to the 1970’s increase of skateboarding I believe there was lots of people that had been attempting to money in on the recognition of the game so I believe that Olle most likely knew that there was some cash to be made in skateboarding and he put this skatepark collectively for the actual fact of charging admission and simply attempting to money in on the hype. As I saved studying by the article it talked about that the park was going to be inaugurated the next week and that was actually fascinating as I may piece collectively a little bit of an estimate of when the skatepark was opened. The newspaper article was dated the 2nd of July 1978 and this was a Sunday so someplace between the third and the ninth of July the park opened. Now I’ve all the time been looking for an article that talked about particularly the opening simply to try to get a time stamp however so far as I do know there’s nothing that exists so it is in that window between the third to the ninth of July 1978 when the park was open.

Proving that the web database was profitable I jumped again on and was looking for something in reference to the opening which i discussed earlier than I may by no means discover however what I did truly come throughout had been a couple of extra articles that had been written particularly speaking in regards to the snakerun, but they had been following Sweden’s first skateboarding crew they usually had been referred to as Carter Crew. Now Carter Crew had been down on the snakerun performing some promotional shoots earlier than it opened, the article additionally talked about the precise names of the individuals who had been within the crew and from there I believed it might be an excellent level to contact these guys.

The one member from the Carter Crew, Johan Hillnäs, who was nonetheless alive had his particulars on-line and I despatched him by a textual content message then we kicked off an e-mail dialog. Johan gave me some actually nice data, Carter Crew truly helped Olle Andersson give you the design and this is smart as a result of as Olle had no concept about skateboarding he wanted to have individuals who had been concerned within the sport guiding him. Another fascinating issues had been the park was constructed shortly and the standard wasn’t one of the best which began to deteriorate fairly quick. You may truly see that from among the 80’s pictures with the cracks within the concrete forming and it is beginning to look slightly bit sketchy. The truth that he constructed Automobilen so shortly and Olle not having a lot of an concept about skateboarding, wasn’t one of the best mixture ultimately. I additionally acquired data that the u-pipe was bought to Olle by the supervisor of Carter Crew, Kent Forsman. This u-pipe was transportable and the Carter Crew would take it with them when doing skateboarding demo’s all through Sweden.

On the similar time I used to be getting some nice details about the early days and development of Automobilen, I managed to get a lead that probably there have been outdated photographs of the the snakerun within the Cultural Historical past Museum of Halland. Halland is the state through which Falkenberg is positioned, so I reached out to the museum and one of many woman’s working there discovered a complete roll of unfavourable photographs which have by no means seen the sunshine of day. I may see there have been so many pictures of Carter Crew who had been down there doing trials on the skatepark and this was undoubtedly essentially the most in depth pictures assortment that exits of the skatepark. She additionally despatched me the unique software that Gunner and Lars submitted to the native council to try to get Automobilen listed as a historic landmark. This paper was a gold mine for me and there have been so many items of the puzzle that received put collectively.

The doc states that the constructing allow was authorised on the twentieth of June 1978 and after I’d discovered the article speaking in regards to the opening that was dated the 2nd of July 1978. So between the twentieth of June and the 2nd of July Olle constructed this 35 metre concrete snakerun which is spectacular. Additionally the truth that this man had no concept about skateboarding till two weeks earlier than he despatched within the constructing software, it is nuts. There’s additionally extra details about the u-pipe which wasn’t all the time positioned close to the snakerun, it was initially positioned on the entrance to the lodge which was some sort of selling stunt that Olle probably was attempting to tug off. Because the snakerun is positioned on the outdated freeway that used to hyperlink all of the smaller cities from the larger cities on the Swedish Southwest Coast and clearly being a lodge / roadhouse makes it an excellent location for passers-by. Olle was most likely pondering to place the u-pipe there and seize these individuals occurring holidays or taking a visit down south. What ended up occurring within the Autumn of 1978 is that Olle had no allow for the u-pipe to face the place it was so he needed to transfer it, which ended up being positioned subsequent to the snakerun the place it lived till it was fully eliminated in 2022. This was a little bit of a sign for me that point is absolutely ticking for this skatepark and I used to be actually scared that possibly the snakerun would disappear subsequent. After scoring this picture archive and in addition the unique software that was submitted to the native council by Gunnar an Lars I despatched all these things by to Jonathan and he was overwhelmed.

As time handed I step by step found out that there had been individuals over time who actually had the the Automobilen snakeruns greatest curiosity at coronary heart. Other than Gunner and Lars who submitted the applying to the native Council there’s was additionally a restoration plan that was drawn up for the by an organization referred to as Bryggeriet who operates down in Malmö and the man who was attempting to push this restoration plan is named John Magnusson. John Magnusson is a very influential Swedish skateboarder so I had hope at that time that this place was truly going to be restored or some form of association might be put in place with the homeowners of the land to make it possible for it is protected and nonetheless standing for future generations.

The ultimate thriller when it got here to Automobilen was the entire Tony Alva story. I did not know whether or not this was rumour handed down from technology to technology, but I’ve seen it listed in two websites that he visited Automobilen in 1978. If this was true then credibility for the skatepark would skyrocket. If I may discover one thing that would tie Tony to the snakerun it might actually assist the general trigger and provides this park much more of a lift for it is historic worth.

I began looking by photos on Pinterest, Fb and Instagram. I came upon there was a selected photographer at the moment and he was referred to as Wynn Miller and he is taken many of the most iconic pictures of Tony Alva from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Wynn Miller was additionally the photographer that toured with Tony throughout his first European Tour in 1978. Throughout that tour he arrived in Stockholm and did some demos there and a few areas north of Stockholm in a spot Solvalla. He additionally made his method all the way down to Gothenburg, through which he disillusioned followers and refused to skate at certainly one of Sweden’s first skate spots The Banana Bowl. He claimed it was far to harmful and that it sucked. After his go to to Gothenburg hearsay has it that he did go additional south to Falkenberg and skateboarded the Automobilen Snakerun.

On the similar time that I used to be rummaging by photographs of Tony Alva on-line, it was posted in my Fb group that Tony Alva did skate Automobilen, mainly one group member referred to as Pål talked about that he was down on the snakerun on a median day and out of nowhere Tony simply turns up. I imply that is fairly loopy particularly for being the late 1970’s earlier than social media and essentially the most well-known skateboarder from that period turns up at your native park, it might have been mind-blowing.

After scouring the web to try to discover something that resembled Tony Alva skateboarding the snakerun, I used to be was left unsuccesful. I would seen so many movies of Tony in Sweden throughout 1978 however they had been taken additional north in Sweden. So the final shot I had was attempting to tug collectively any outdated skateboarding magazines from the 1970’s that had been revealed inside Sweden and there have been a pair that got here out on the time. One particularly was referred to as The Skateboarding Information and this journal solely launched two points. I believed that possibly it might be an excellent transfer to look into as a result of they had been each dated from 1978. I managed to search out these two unique magazines within the humanitarian library, a part of the College Library of Gothenburg. This was truly a little bit of a narrative in itself as a result of I went down there and I could not take the magazines residence, I needed to sit in a studying room, after I received there they had been in pristine situation. They had been in a plastic sleeve and after I pulled each of those editions out they appeared like they hadn’t been touched in virtually 40 years, they had been model new. I went by the magazines looking for out if there was something about Tony Alva however got here up with nothing. There was, nonetheless, one function of Automobilen which was a evaluate of the snakerun. A skate crew went down there and mentioned it was a “thumbs down” to the snakerun writing the standard wasn’t one of the best, they had been additionally speaking about the truth that the u-pipe was poo high quality they usually confirmed among the stuff that the member of Carter Skate Crew had informed me over e-mail. It was clear {that a} stigma was actually constructing within the early days of skateboarding there as a result of loads of the native youngsters and loads of the skate magazines and skate groups did not actually need to be related to the place. Olle additionally did not actually make it simple for individuals as a result of he was attempting to cost admission and there have been newer skateparks that had been free opening up in among the larger cities. I believe lots of people felt that Automobilen was slightly bit off the overwhelmed monitor they usually might as nicely skate at their native parks in among the larger cities. I believe that is a motive why this place fell off the grid and fairly shortly misplaced individuals’s consideration.

As some weeks handed I managed to get successful by my Fb group once more and a Pål the who member skated with Tony at Automobilen posted a photograph that was taken by Wynn Miller of Tony Alva doing a Bert Slide on the prime of this picket ramp. Once I appeared into this picture earlier than it was added in our group it was posted on Wynn Millers Instagram account and Wynn credited it to being exterior of Paris. Once I talked about this to Pål he was adamant that it was taken at Automobilen and never exterior Paris. I then went about decoding the picture (featured under) and jumped onto Google Maps road view and put myself on the entrance of Automobilen. I needed to work some totally different angles to line it up then, increase it’s clear as day that that cottage on the left hand aspect on road view is the one which’s represented on this shot by Wynn Miller. I’ve added the unique picture from Wynn and the road view photographs under for reference. The chimney is precisely the identical, there’s the intricate woodworking on the a-frame of the home. You may as well see that there is picket skirting boards that run across the white exterior of the cottage which is unmistakably taken at Automobilen. The opposite half which has much more proof for this shot is the tree line, which nonetheless stands. So the place is Tony precisely in relation to the snakerun? The picture is taken on the outdated slalom run that also exists on the property. He’s on initially ramp which is about 150 meters in entrance of the snakerun. You may see in one of many archive photographs what lies on the finish of the slalom run, which was the u-pipe and adjoining is the snakerun.

Because it stands right now Automobilen is intertwined on a really fragile set of circumstances. The skatepark nonetheless exists and the homeowners have not tried to take away it but so there’s loads of issues right here which are nonetheless flying within the air. Publicity, getting individuals speaking about it, getting it recognised for its heritage and having it flow into on social media, plus having the documentary launched in Feb of 2024 are essential. It deserves credit score and on the finish of the day it is only a very mystical, cool place that must be protected for future generations. There’s already so many reminiscences and so many tales connected to this skatepark it might simply be a travesty if someday it was demolished and wiped from the skateboarding world.

Tony Alva has been contacted a number of occasions about commenting within the documentary, but has not been prepared to make any statements regarding the skatepark with out monetary acquire, which may be very unlucky. There ought to for my part be extra work executed by these iconic skate boarders to showcase these locations and assist protected them.

Throughout my analysis relating to Automobilen I’ve, nonetheless, met some very fascinating those who do share the identical ardour for safeguarding these locations. Two lecturers referred to as Iain Borden and Patrick Quinn have been publishing tutorial papers across the significance of skatepark preservation. In addition they launched an article throughout 2023 itemizing Automobilen as skatepark that must be saved. I additionally took the freedom of gaining their knowledgeable recommendation for an podcast interview, which you’ll be able to hearken to right here.