For the second time Berlin’s Skäti Crew is invited to join the legendary Peng Peng contest. This one’s a special one as Berlin based brand Radio Skateboards organizes this chaotic fun in the parking lot of the supermarket Edeka Treugut (if you live in Germany you know this is kinda noteworthy). Skäti Crew member Bine has all the details you need to know about the session, the contests and the fun on September 3rd!
Peng Peng in Berlin is an annual 90s style street skating contest organized by Radio Skateboards (a Berlin skateboard Brand). It takes place during the “Baumscheibenfest”, an Alt-Treptow neighborhood party in Berlin, and is co-organized and sponsored by the supermarket Edeka treugut, who kindly supplies most of the infrastructure and fills its parking lot with DIY skate obstacles (as a side note, Sandra Treugut, a longtime skate supporter, also has a Supermarket with skateboard-shaped lamps and a finger board skatepark inside!). It has a small registration fee that is completely donated to a social cause. With many sponsors Peng Peng brings together Berlins skate culture and commemorates and celebrates the 90´s style street skating: rough, fun, improvised, DIY, punk. It is the most visited Berlin skate event, taking place during a whole day with live music and stands with drinks, food, skate related items, and the most fun playful vibe. For the first year the center piece to skate was a car, the second year a little paddling pool with a huge inflatable flamingo surrounded by quarters, and we will surely be surprised again this year!
Peng Peng in Berlin: 90´s style skating
During the late 80´s and early 90´s skating moved from empty pools and mega ramps into the streets. With skateboards being widely available to a cheap prize and the city as a blank canvas to create, subculture flourished, and an anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian attitude ruled the scene. While there are not many images and articles that show us what roller skaters were doing during this time, contemporary female and lgtbiq+ led Roller skating, in particular the Argentinian quad skating scene, (check out Moco, Luleer, Barbie, and all of Plan de Finde´s work amongst others) is shredding the streets like there is no tomorrow, flourishing out of the ruins of late capitalism. And that´s the spirit we want to celebrate!
The nineties were ruled by so many things we love as a crew: We love street skating, we love DIY culture, we love spontaneous contests, we love subculture, we love making space for misfits and rebels… but we are well aware there´s another side to 90´s skating that we do not support: Sexism! In Dani Abulhawa (skateboarder academic and activist) words: “Skateboarding’s subcultural years throughout the 1980s and 1990s were typified by skateboarder´s anti-social and anti-authoritarian mentality mixed with residual identification with hetero-masculinity, which was achieved through an amplified objectification of the female form.” Yep, I guess we have all seen the naked woman decks and we continue to see misogynist and sexist behavior within skate culture. We do not support or accept any of this. Peng Peng is a revisited celebration of the punk and DIY character of 90´s skating characterized by a strong will to skate even in the rougher of grounds, and the unconditional companionship that emerges from this. This is an inclusive and diverse event where pronouns will be visible and inclusive language will be strived for. We strongly encourage the participation of women and lgtbqi+.
Format of the Contest
Peng Peng is a full day of skate fun! It will start already at 9am with a skateboard workshop for all levels led by the wonderful team of Skatesencia Berlin. This is a great opportunity to try skateboarding! We have ongoing collaborations with Skatesencia bridging the skateboard-roller-skate divide, which is at the core of this event. While this is happening, you can already checkup the obstacles and enlist yourself in the contest if you feel like it.
At 10:30am the roller skate slot starts with an open session. This means everyone on roller skates can skate around. While this happens, we will observe you and encourage you to try some stuff for prizes, but no pressure! We will give out prizes for best dance move on obstacle, best bail, most original trick, most out of comfort zone and best attitude amongst others (depending on how many goodies our wonderful sponsors send us). This open session will also serve as a warmup for contestants (we are tight on time). At 11:30 the official contest starts. Here each participant will have 1 min to give their best. Participants will be judged on a variety of criteria like style, use of space, originality and tricks. Prizes will be given out to best line, best trick, best bail, most original skater amongst others. We ask our participants not to focus on their “level” but rather on their love for skating and capacity to skate in a contest setting. This is not about competing against each other; this is about sharing a passion and inspiring others. We still encourage a certain degree of healthy competition, celebrating personal achievements. But we do not follow a set of static standards and classifications trying to measure everyone by the same bar or valuating bigger faster gnarlier as better than little playful moves. This is also why we don´t feel the need to separate men from the rest, as no particular kind of socialization will be of advantage. Everyone can skate here! The keyword of the event is PLAYFUL.
Then, while the judges deliberate, we will have a little best skateboarder on roller skates contest to give all our wood pushing friends a chance to have wheels attached to their feet and see where this takes them.
And finally, we will coronate our participants and relax to enjoy the rest of the day supporting and cheering for the skateboard competition.
Hope to see many old and new friends on peng peng!
What? A Roller skate session and contest within a skateboard contest
When? Sunday Sept 3, 2022, registration start 10 am, session start 10:30 am, contest start 11:30
Where? Edeka Treugut Parking Lot, Heidelberger Str. 90, 12435 Berlin
Words by Sabine Biedermann
Photos by Panke Nicolat Pérez