AJZ Skate Camp 2016 – TOTAL SKATE PARADISE!

This is the 8th United by Skate Camp – Without Borders!, and the 3rd for the group of Macedonia!

AJZ Skate Camp. Eight years ago a group of youth activists based in Chemnitz, Germany decided to make something for the young people who struggle. So they started the project U.B.S which targeted the skate/BMX/inline and alternative/underground culture, aiming to unite a lot of people sharing this passion throughout Europe, in one place, for two weeks.

As obvious, this turned out really well! Three years ago, a Macedonian group was added to this camp. Coordinated by Hristina Gelevska, under the signature of S.A.M (Skateboarding Association of Macedonia), this was their third year in Chemnitz. The Macedonian group had guest participants from Slovenia and Croatia.

This year, apart from the skateboarding-every-day routine, the camp included amazing workshops in five fields of acting and interest:

• Reconstruction and sanitation of one of the three connected half pipes in the backyard of AJZ.
• Building a pizza oven out of clay and hay as part of the Nia Domo project (part of it happening in AJZ, Chemnitz, Germany and the other part in Sao Paolo, Brazil). This project aims in raising awareness in self-sufficiency, eco-friendly and D.I.Y constructions.
• Graffiti and deco workshop for the upcoming HeyDays Festival, which is happening every year as part of the camp
• A break-dance workshop lead by amazing Alejandro Mora from Extremadura
• A rap workshop, where people were free to write their own text, choose their own beats and got their five golden minutes on stage at HeyDays.

All of these workshops were successful and we had them throughout the whole camp, of course when finished, the people were re-grouped.

In the second week of the camp, the whole group from the camp got on a bus and did a road trip to Leipzig. Stayed there for one night, spent the afternoon and evening in an amazing building similar to AJZ – in the video referred to as Conne Island, which has an amazing D.I.Y skate bowl with a mini ramp and all sorts of things.

After coming back to AJZ, the guys used up all the time to skate street spots – Train Station and Banks, also the famous Konkordiapark where Bring Da Truckaz took place. Besides skating and filming the spots, most of the guys were preparing and getting used to Konkordia, so they get better results on the contest. Also, a goodbye was said to the Macedonian-Slovenian part of the group.

On Saturday, the 13^th of August, from 11 in the morning the registrations and free runs started in Konkordia.

It lasted through the whole day, followed up by an amazing barbecue from the AJZ tent, cold beers and crazy amounts of Monster give-away.

The end of the contest was noted in the famous club Atomino in the center, where amazing Jeru the Damaja killed it on the mic.

The Sunday morning, the day before there was the traditional and well known PIZZA NIGHT.

First, to begin with, an incredible amount of gratitude to XMKD and DropIn who participated by sending off two boys to camp as a prize for the 1^st and 2^nd place of the Big Fat Game of Skate event that happened in Skopje. A big thanks to Popcorn Skate Co. for branding the group with the already known Popcorn ID Logo T-Shirts.

Last, but not least, crazy amounts of love to the AJZ team, that make this crazy paradise happen, and creating a feeling of home. To all the countries that participate, and the amazing coordinators that take care of them, I present you – Mer from the Spanish group, Honza from the Czech group, Flo from the Austrian group and all the people from the German group.

A big thank you to Hrvoje Zubovic who is responsible for this amazing skate video from the camp.

Enjoy!

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