Where can a bum find bed and board, when you gonna make it stop rainin‘ lord… Warren Zevon’s blasting from the speaker of our nine seater van as we’re driving through a heavy thunderstorm. Tree branches on the highway, aquaplaning, lightnings and hazard lights as far as the eyes can see. Everyone and everything’s still soaking wet from last night’s camping disaster. We’re on day six of a 13 day tour – cat’s out of the bag, we’re working on a sequel to We Live Here –, and up until that point it had felt like a smart idea to disregard all weather forecasts and stick to our plan, i.e. a 3000 kilometres journey from Belgium via Luxembourg to the French Alps, then all the way through Switzerland and Germany to the Austrian capital. Luckily, Julien Bachelier and the good people over at Antiz Skateboards gave bed and many a board to us bums at their Lyon office and a couple of days later, including a one of a kind session at Saint Jean de Maurienne’s concrete paradise, we were on our way to Vienna. The almighty Gnarathon was calling… 

Seems like it’s raining‘ harder today, the rain must of known I was coming‘ this way, it ain’t easy living on the run… David Allan Coe blasting from the speaker as we’re crossing several state borders and some more thunderstorms on day ten of our tour. We’re deeply sorry, if it was us, who brought the rain, that would keep coming down during the Gnarathon weekend, but hey, we also brought arguably the greatest DJ that Vienna has ever seen: Mr. Yann Horowitz. If you’ve had the chance to see him perform at this year’s closing party (or at last year’s), you know exactly what we’re talking about! Man knows how to make them floors vibrate, not only when he throws down fakie flips.

While we missed the first official Gnarathon get together at the Vans Store on Thursday afternoon, June 05 – we were busy saving Robin Bolian’s board from a sewer in some ditch in Linz (which took us longer than the actual session) –, we still arrived on time for a much needed dinner at a restaurant with all the good people over at Vans. A restaurant with chairs and tables for everyone, enough plates and cutlery, food that is actually warm and drinks that are like actually cold? A ten day DIY/camping tour definitely makes you appreciate the little things in life. 

Friday, June 06, saw a fun FLINTA session going down. For what’s probably the best impressions from this one, you may wanna check out Dolores Magazine’s instagram post. Moa Zander killed it and big up to the Gnarathon for reminding all of us how precious certain safe spaces can be. The main events on Saturday, June 07, and Sunday, June 08, also saw some FLINTA sessions go down, as well as, of course, some heavy open sessions. While certain other so-called ‘open’ events may sometimes feel more like a private party for them big names with everyone else on the sidelines, the Gnarathon somehow manages to maintain a playful session-with-your-friends-character. When you’ve got local kids sharing not only the space, but also the stoke and the crowd’s applause with heavy-hitters like Alexey Krasniy, Jake Yanko, Jechu Corvalan or Simon Hallberg, when all kinds of lovely people skate, celebrate and laugh their asses off together – despite some occasional (heavy) rain –, you know that you’re in the right place and that you wanna be a part of this. Sounds cheesy, but that’s exactly what the Gnarathon felt like – once again!

Massive thanks to Vans Europe for helping us out with our pre-Gnarathon adventure, for getting us out to Vienna and for taking care of us over the course of the weekend. Just as massive of a thanks to Paul Labadie, Skateboard Club Vienna and everyone involved in making the Gnarathon 2025 happen. Big up to Stu Smith, Steffi Wolter, Dave Morgan and Chris Pfanner for keeping everyone extra entertained. Shout-out to Robin Bolian and Joe Lascar, who took on that monster of a double bank switch (!) after surviving eleven days on the road with us; after all, it was worth saving Robin’s board in Linz. Shout-out Bennet Rahm, who kicked off the Saturday event with a marathon of backside grind (see last slide in this post here); as undeniably talented as he is behind the lens, we’d argue that the world needs a Bennet full part. Shout-out Doobie for all the beers and last but not least, major shout-out to each and every single Gnarathonian! Hope to see you all again next year!