Eastpak/Carhartt tour part 2: De Mekert, Netherlands

May 23, 2006

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5599 times

For no particular reason I ended up in the Cools brother's white van. You can consider this their house when they're on the road. It's super roomy, has some sort of stereo and plenty of room for bikes. I've met Sig and Hannu before but never got to know them very well. This changed on the Eastpak/Carhartt trip. Their hospitality is endless and they even picked up a couple of hitchhikers from France on our way North to Holland for the next stop.

Our guests Juan and Sarah (or something like that) asked if we liked beer and they hopped on board with their guitar, tent, hobo and two 6-packs of beers. Hell yeah! Of course during our trip to skatepark De Mekert in Middelburg, they had to play some music and while we were getting tipsy on their beer, we missed the town that they wanted to get off at. Sorry about that and thanks for the beer.

De Mekert, Middelburg, The Netherlands.

We did arrive pretty late but Vladdie and his crew were all there. They had just finished cleaning up the park from a breakdance contest so we were lucky that the park was rideable. The park is basically built on a basketball court but indoors. There are not too many lines but for the creative Cools brothers, there is always something to ride. Hannu found a curved wallride in two walls that were actually in a 90 degree angle. No trannie at all so to say. He started at one wall straight into the next wall to 180 tailtap to 180 in. The wall to wall to 540 tailspin has to wait till next time but it will be done.

Ben Manuel had fixed his bike and was rolling again. Pedal spin to fufanus and giant wall taps were his contribution with wethepeople cranks on his Alone bike. Markus Braumann didn't ride very much but nosepick tailwhipped the quarter and whipped the hip before turning back to stealth mode. Vladdie de Koning showed that he's a local at De Mekert and knows the lines. Manuals all over the place, wallrides on every wall and x-up fuf's were some of his tricks in the chill session. Bruno rode non-stop. He's 13 and was pushing bed time. Bruno rules. Sig was looking at a line where he would need a bunch of speed. After 8 attempts he realized that maybe his wallride on the basketball board wasn't going to happen that night.

After throwing the bikes in the van it was time for some food. It was getting late but we found a Gyros place that was decent (and not more than that). The TM's looked into changing the hotel reservation to stay in Middelburg but it was decided to cruise to Zoetermeer as was originally planned. Hannu and Sig were going to go back home after this day but decided to stay on for the remainder of the trip. They had not brought any clothing but let the socks and shorts air out of the window to get a fresh new pair. At the reception of the hotel they didn't have any bags to carry and were loving it. It was 03:30am when we turned the key of the hotel rooms. Moved the photos into the computer and it was 04:30am when the light went out. Nappie time.......

BdJ