Louie’s Traintrack Ollie
The WESC offices are in this industrial park on the edge of Stockholm. Round the back of the actual office were some train tracks that the rest of the industrial park no doubt once used to ship products. Not only were the tracks and platform very picturesque due to their industrial and seemingly abandoned nature, they were also a haven for making and setting-up skateable objects. After an hour or so of skating various stuff we’d rigged up we started to look at the potential for a stupid ollie across the tracks. It looked invitingly possible to ride down the platform, carve ninety degrees and then ollie out over the tracks landing into a bank that we’d cover in wood for run out if we managed to convince anyone to try it.
At the time it was one of those silly things you look at saying, “someone could do that” but without really expecting anybody to step up. Well, true to his Chesterfield form, Louie stepped straight up saying he reckoned he could have it. We were a little apprehensive at first but started to scout for the required items anyway. Idle hands, devil’s work and all that. We grabbed some sheets of ply for the run out as there was loads of shit lying around, we drilled the first ply into the railway sleepers so that when the next sheet was laid over the end it would bend to the angle of the bank. Tech eh?
The whole run out just led straight into a load of trees. The second sheet was metal and so heavy; it took about six of us to even carry it. Honestly it was the craziest thing to behold, the run up with a harsh carve right before you popped and the landing, well that was just plain sketchy, even by British standards. Check the photo to see how the second metal sheet stuck up as we needed it on top as to keep the first sheet bent. The whole scenario was rounded off perfectly by Louie being the pikey that he is and wearing Oxfam trackies, yes. track-suit bottoms, brown Stoke City ones to be exact.
After getting it all ready and sweeping it clean, Louie was ready to step to it. A few bails to get the angle you needed from the run-up occurred and he started to commit to some. He was landing it, but was getting thrown off the front since the first ply was absorbing his ollie and bouncing him off again, throwing him onto the second metal sheet knees and wrists first and, like I said, protected by mere trackies! All this and you had to climb back onto the platform, which was about five/six foot high after every go. Crazy. After a bunch of attempts and some harsh slams, he held on to one and rode it away for a while only for a tree to be approaching rather fast. So with no other choices he just leaned back and let himself fall back onto his arse coming to a halt right at the base of the tree. The trackies were ripped on both knees and the arse, Baines’ prized jacket was ripped at the elbow, as were both knees and palms cut to shreds. It was amazing he had it, I hope these photos do it justice cause l highly doubt you’II ever see this ‘spot’ again.
Nice one Louie, this is for you. (PS. He’s still wearing those Stoke City trackies too, gypsy king that he is).
Click to the right to see the photo’s from this trip as featured in print.
All photo’s by Andy Horsely
