V Praze - Stay_K - 9 days in Prague, Czech Republic
Photography by Christos Yiannaki and Tony Tzo Josephides
Additional Film Photos by George Christofi
Words by Christos Y.
Who falls into the doers category? I mean, some people do more than others... Some choose to go about their ideas quietly, share them to one or two people or no one, work it out behind closed doors only to present them to the public when there's something tangible. This tactic sounds lonely, but I found out that it works with the end result being even more impactful too, due to the surprise factor.
Others choose to express their ideas in words all the time. In result, they end up losing motivation, exactly because energy is wasted in the form of a discussion — or validation from someone else was the main goal in the first place. It might even seem, to an outsider, that the latter group of people's all about doing things, but in the end, what's an idea if you don't put it into action?
Like always, thoughts and insights come with looking for inspiration to put myself to write. Again, like always, depending on how you see it, they can be relevant... while the story goes somewhat like:
One of the crew throws an idea to the table. Your mind starts processing it. "Sounds good, but first let's look into it." Then you do the necessary research, which isn't like you did a nine to five for a week, to be honest. But, you've now one more excuse to say "The idea's good, cause I've already done all this research and half the work's done. Also, why not go for it while we can? still being young without a shitload of responsibilities. Yo, boys, I trust you feel the same?". OK, you don't exactly think like that or go all philosophical the first chance you get and all, but you get the point.
A month later, on the table, there's more than an idea. There's a plan. And few months later, you're on a plane with your friends all fired up and ready to absorb the experience this tour has to offer, give it your hundred percent. In the meantime, the guy that originally had the idea is busy with something else while you're off fetching the dream. I guess people like Tasos, Tony, Timmy, myself and, last but not least, George fall into the doers category. Most importantly, not only did we go to Prague on the 21st of May, but we fu**ing skated our asses off over there. This blog post / gallery and the tour video that'll soon come along are a fair outcome. Ya dig?
Tasos Panayi - BS Flip at a world-famous kicker, 'Stalin Plaza'... legendary
with a small girl having the time of her life butt-boarding and watching tricks go down
On a rainy first day, it's not often that you can actually say you had a blast. These two tunnels located under Hlávkův bridge are a paradise for this kind of situation. Vltavská Skate Park, as it's called, kept us busy and happy to kick off our 9-days tour. Even though, obviously, we weren't there for the skateparks, we took the chance to shoot a Wallride photo with Tasos and a quick edit for the gram (https://www.instagram.com/p/C7Y8R74Nnqd). After all, this underground playground looks good on pictures.
Tasos Panayi - BS Wallride, higher every next go
Tony Josephides - pig-gyback Nosebonk
On the other hand, in these big European cities, it is often that you stumble upon random street spots (usually crusty) on the way to another well-known one. That's how we kept finding these nice barriers with different combinations — barrier to curb, curved ones and more — on the side of the road. You'll see, at least, three of them in our upcoming video. Whether it was a night session after half day of rest or the spot of choice after a kickout, these unique combos of wonderful yellow-black-striped objects were there for us to have fun, get tech and creative.
Big thanks have to go to the locals. These barriers, normally, were connected together with heavy metal plates and screws. Well, from the ones that made a good skate spot, these metals were removed, opening them up for everyone to get clips.
Christos Yiannaki - FS Boardslide Pop out to Fakie, late night mission
For many of the spots we had guidance from pragueskatestreetspotsmap.com and our Czech friend, Limassol resident and Red Coffee video creator, Tom Havle. He was supposed to be part of the crew but, unfortunately, he didn't make it; so, he lent us a hand from a distance of 3k km away.
Getting kicked out by drunk residents that wanna play it patriotic, although their friends are passed out in the grass nearby, is not fun.
First of all, Tom recommended us the area where we stayed, called Letna in Prague 7. The most famous skate spot in the country, "Stalin Plaza", is located there; lots of good spots, around; and for some other reasons he explained, I can't remember right now, that was the area of choice. Thank you, Tom. Because, in fact, most of our bangers went down in very close walking distance from our house.
George Christofi - street gap Ollie to 5050
one minute from the house, easy
In addition, Prague 7 is next to the touristic area (if you want, in the process, to explore more than skate-related stuff), but without the hustle of being overcrowded and, importantly, of having those unskateable sidewalks of the old city. We've seen how it is at Prague 1; don't get me wrong, the place looks beautiful, but not fun for a skateboarder with a goal. Trying to skate a statue while getting kicked out by drunk residents that wanna play it patriotic, although their friends are passed out in the grass nearby, is not fun.
One day we followed a pin that led us to a hill above the old city (the important churches, the parliament and whatnot) to an abandoned building that made the perfect spot. Other than the different banks with potential for tricks in, and the New York-looking crusty AF ledge, this spot had covered areas with good flatground for a game of SKATE to pass time. Let me explain why we needed it...
Tom had already warned us about the daily sudden weather changes in Czechia in May. Well, being his home country after all, he nailed it again. This's how it was throughout the whole trip, minus a couple summer-ish days; it would rain, sometimes even heavily, for like 20mins; but, just before the bitterness of a ruined session would start to sink in, the clouds would break soon, leaving space for the sun to greet us after we hadn't seen it for a couple days.
The first practical lesson we were taught: get used to check, upon arrival, if each spot has that commodity whereto we can escape every time the sky feels like spitting us some, to keep the gear safe and spend some time waiting for sunshine. In addition, these situations that were bad and good at the same time, taught us how to see hope in the horizon for a good productive session even when the sky was filled with dark clouds. Maybe this lesson's still with us as the Cyprus' heatwave shows its teeth.
George - Kickflip FS Tailslide, New York calling
I have to say, on this tour, the young guns came through. With no surprise, I'm talking about Tasos. The second weapon... is George A. Christofi!
Imagine, George skated so much that, last two days, he suffered extreme fatigue. Eight full days straight were enough for the busy barber to reach his limits. "That last stair session... I wasn't feeling it, boys," he went on after he'd gotten ill. Some of us just have to truly suffer in order to learn. Almost the way I'd seen my limits in France, George got it in Czech Republic.
Let me take this chance to finally welcome George, officially, to the Stay_K team. Here's a big "Proud to have you on board" from everyone, brother. Other than the bangers, good energy and providing the phone clip edits, during those 9 days you also carried the backpack with our precious 3kg speaker and the pain relief creams. Medicines for both soul and body. I guess, this's good timing. Respect!
George - Kickflip
Last but not least, the tennis court spot. It needs a paragraph or two of its own. We eyed this spot with Tasos on our way to Stalin, in the same big park the plaza's at. We figured out a way to make it skateable from the top of the blocks so that you can jump over the rail and into the bank, by using two benches that were nearby for the spectators of the tennis practice. We thought the spot still looked cool, not to say even more interesting, having to ollie onto that narrow wooden bench. Then, there was the 4ft drop and the landing was good and clean. The spot looked promising. We called it out and instantly the mission was on. Unfortunately, at first, but not to our surprise, quickly we got kicked out by a coach — and I'm saying "at first", because exactly for that reason this whole story gets more interesting.
Even for the doers, there's a time to move and there's a time to stand frozen, no movement at all to trigger any undesirable eyes.
I need a parenthesis here: the Stay_K crew are damn doers, I guess. After the kickout, we all called it out then and there: one of these few days we've left in Prague, we'll be here at night, after the court closes, and in stealth mode (a lil' bit hard with our bulk of spot lights and flashes) we'll hit the spot, make it happen!
So, it did; we didn't just stick to putting the idea on the table. And it all went smoothly. Even though, for some reason, there were cop cars passing literally 10m from the spot every other minute. Thankfully, Timmy with his quick thinking would turn off our spot lights every time at the right moment to make us invisible. Even for the doers, there's a time to move and there's a time to stand frozen, no movement at all to trigger any undesirable eyes. I don't know if you've ever experienced the feeling, being in a foreign country, trespassing cause behind some fence there's a skate spot you can't resist, and suddenly a street really close is full of cops who soon start to pass one after the other right outside the fence you just trespassed. It's not a nice feeling, thinking that you'll end up in a jail of the place that you were supposed to skate those 9 days. I even took the backup SD card with the photos out of my camera, in case they busted us and wanted to delete the footage. (This happened to me before, in Athens). Assumptions aside, couple of them saw us and slowed down but it seemed like they didn't think much of it and went on with their lives. I guess the cops there are chill with skateboarding. Or maybe it matters when there's a big skate plaza in the same park area. People are accustomed, even the cops. Or that's one more reason to get the good ol' "f**k off from here and go over there where everybody skates". I wouldn't know, being on the other side practically my whole life.
Tasos - Ollie up the bench and Ollie into the bank to drop
Yes, the journey counts, like Homer says in his poem Odyssey; but, if you ask me, the result f**kin' counts too. Regarding the tennis court spot, we waited like predators, it became quiet, we jumped the fence, lighted up the spot, Tasos made two tricks without any of us getting arrested, we took them home... And this's all that matters. One more story to tell accompanied by solid evidence and, shared by the whole crew — both the ones who made the trick or shot photos, and the ones who were there for their friends firing it up despite the risk — a great feeling of fulfillment.
Tony testing his big pop capabilities with a 5o Stall from flat and into the bank, Stalin plaza
after the tennis court session, in the total darkness of a place that right before was filled with life
Christos - FS Shoveit
this spot is unreal. but, it's rough and, especially without big soft wheels, harder than it looks
#Skaterowned Core to the Bone.
The tour happened on 21st-30th of May 2024.
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