When at a chance meeting during my first trip for Pleasure in October, Ferdi [Kofler, Monster Energy] asked me if Niqi and I would be keen to join for DIYX Krakow, the time it took me to confirm was an incredibly short one. Faster than we could actually think about what we were even going to be doing there, flights were booked, and our fate was sealed. As it tends to be with these sorts of events, memories might get a little blurry, hence, I took some notes. This is what came out of it.

[Wed Night]

We’re going to Poland tomorrow. I actually don’t know too much about the country, except that one of my favourite Isenseven members growing up, Wojtek Pawlusjak, is from there, and that some of my friends have been riding incredibly sketchy yet fun-looking Europa Cups there. It’s Veroniqi and my first field trip as the Pleaure crew. What do I expect from that? Lots of questions about Tom [Kingsnorth]’s whereabouts for one. “No, I don’t know where he is. He works with that brand that had a pretty viral launch at the beginning of November now.”

[Thu, Day Zero]

Thursday morning, we’re taking a bus from Innsbruck to Munich Airport, and from there we’re flying out to Krakow. There are about 15 of us beanie-wearing, baggy-clothes types waiting for the bus at the airport. And despite school being a faint memory for most of the attendees, it feels like 10th grade all over again. The last row is packed, people are gossiping, you get the gist of it. In Munich, even more friendly faces join us. Interestingly enough, out of about 22 ½ people boarding that flight, Boti [Fricz] is the only one who brought a board bag. Welcome to the media side of things, I suppose. With Niqi being a former invitee and participant at DIYX, and me, at least in my self-understanding, an avid chaser of the x-treme rail jam invitation dream, this was an interesting change of pace.
While the welcome night in some ways - people getting a little too excited about the Monster dollar drink vouchers put in their hands - went as expected, in others, it was full of surprises. While a personal highlight of the night was discovering that the buffet had clearly marked vegan options, it is probably also worth mentioning that Ethan Morgan finally scored his first cover with our friends over at Method Mag. Congrats, Ethan. No one deserves this more than you!
Another surprise was Pat Fava, while trying to play a DJ set, getting (another?) Pro-Model Board. Two to make it true, I suppose.

Good thing he brought a boardbag: Botond Fricz, p: Shaina Joel

[Fri, Day One]

Friday morning was spent exclusively at the breakfast table, bouncing from one conversation to another between trips to the buffet. What a nice way to start a day. Around noon, we made our way to the first spot of the event. A stadium with a gigantic LED wall, smoke, and spark throwers installed on the steps. Since we were media, our task here would appear to be pretty straightforward, but then neither Niqi nor I had ever really done anything like this before, so we just had to wing it. As it was still early, most of the riders were yet to rock up, except for Joey Fava, who somehow managed to Backside 5050 the kinked rail on the very first try. No wonder he got MVP. He tried doing it again later, battling hard and even taking his shirt off in the process, but that didn’t help, for some reason.

The session that unfolded after was incredible. Some broken boards here and there, lots of banger tricks, but chances are you’ve already seen those on Instagram. Personal standouts of that session were Rob Roethler and Jess Perlmutter, riding the setup as if there weren’t gaps between the rails and people tumbling around everywhere.
The first afterparty was wild, too. When we arrived, a Polish group was on stage, pairing dubstep and drum & bass with aggressive rap lyrics. I’d never seen that before, but it was pretty sick.

[Sat, Day Two]

Saturday started similarly to the day before, but the rest of the day still baffles me. Trying to snatch a ride to the spot, I jumped into the Vans Van, somehow finding myself on a scoping mission all of a sudden. What I learned there is that Krakow has some nice-looking glass escalators, that’s for sure. Arriving at Jordan Park, we found a single patch of snow with a pretty sketchy-looking jump on it, just next to the ice rink. On the side of that patch, there was metal, a lot of it. There were rails of all kinds, fridges, and even car doors. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Once the riders and shapers were let loose on it, there was no holding back anymore. Within minutes, this near-vacant patch of snow was turned into a playground. For unknowing bystanders, it might have looked more like a scrapyard, but who cares, as long as it rides?

Talking about scraps, next to all the metal, there were also a surfboard, boogie boards, snow scooters, bobsleds, and even a pair of cross-country skis on site. While Kas [Lemmens] quickly confiscated the surfboard and went grass surfing with it, Simon [Pircher] earned himself an award so underground that probably not even the organizers realized it went down: the first person ever on skis at DIYX.
Since everyone got a little excited at the start, a challenge rail was set up, so challenging that not even Petr [Ershov] could frontboard all the way through it. He still won some pretty pricy glasses that give Mr. Zuckerberg even more information about your life than he already has anyway.
After the challenge rail was finally dismantled, came the moment that everyone had been waiting for: finally, something was set on fire. The jump, patiently sitting there all day, finally got its well-deserved session. People were literally jumping through the flames. The smell of burnt hair was omnipresent, but that didn’t matter, as the DIYXiest of them all, Halldor Helgason first decided to put on a show, and then shut the whole thing down as well with a buzzer-beater hardway bs 270. Considering he’s a family man these days and had been up all night partying the night before, experiencing this probably resembled the closest most of us will ever get to seeing a generational performance unfold. On Sunday morning, there were claims that he had ordered 30 kebabs to bring back to the hotel. How many it was at the end of the day, nobody knows, but just put the man in the Hall of Fame already.

Burnt Moustache: Halldor Helgason, p: Shaina Joel

The venue for Saturday night was called Hype Park - a pretty fitting name, considering it all.
Awards were given out, and then the fun went on all night, with AJ & ATI playing their first back-to-back set, and a D&B party completely unrelated to DIYX in the room next door. After mischievously bouncing around until the party was over, some exploration of Krakow and playing some extra creative Jenga in the hotel lobby while waiting for the breakfast buffet to open, at some point, it was decided that the necessity of going to sleep was just going to be ignored entirely.
How we made it back to Munich, I’m still not sure. What’s certain, though, is that this DIYX ruled, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Winners (as if it were about that):

Overall Winner Female: Jess Perlmutter
Overall Winner(s) Male: Joey Fava & Rob Roethler
DIYXiest: Halldor Helgason

Travel Diary: DIYX Krakow

Gallery: Jonas Gasser