Author Topic: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings  (Read 9407 times)

XLR8

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Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« on: January 06, 2014, 11:08:35 AM »
This video has been floating around for a few days and I thought I would post it here because I really appreciate the can-do attitudes of people who want to pursue their sport but aren't in the prime place for it.  I don't  think these guys are Detroit locals, though I heard from some Detroit friends that a local skier was involved.

I just think it is cool to make the best of where you are, using what it offers.  I've had to make do with mediocre surf, mediocre skiing, mediocre biking for most my life and still love those sports.  It's tough to always keep a positive mindset to make the best of what you have but videos like this help me stay on that focus.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M34yz47b-w
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headmount

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2014, 12:00:47 PM »
Very cool.  Opening clips looked right out of Enemy at the Gates with the battle of Stalingrad in WWII.  They guy hucking inside that building ... wow ... just the mood.

lucabrasi

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2014, 04:54:53 PM »
That is pretty damn cool. A local skier is good but as you see in some surf movies or ski movies made in obscure places like Iran or Russia or the Himalayas where the locals don't always have the knowledge or means to pursue it I think to have made it wrap all around they should have gotten some local kids into it, sharing the stoke, tho that quite possibly would be a rather unique challenge considering that particular location and how "tough" the locals may be and what kind of outlook and attitude many of the locals may have.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2014, 05:03:07 PM by lucabrasi »

covesurfer

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2014, 07:45:30 PM »
What a cool video. Those guys had some cajones to go where they were. That was f#cking art as far as what they did too. Amazing!

I grew up there, in motown, before it really began it's long decline. Still, I couldn't get out of there fast enough and I was gone before I turned 18.

Funny how familiar it still seems. Detroit has a look that is all it's own. My dad worked in the city and took me everywhere as a kid. Old factories were already beginning to be abandoned even in the early 60's, but I don't think the really scary feel to the city really got it's feet until the late 60's, after the Detroit riots in 67. It's been downhill ever since as far as I'm concerned. As a teenager there in the early 70's, my friends and I came close to serious trouble on several occasions, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

About 8 years ago, I had to go back there to rescue my mother, who was in her 80's and beginning to fail. The place was a sea of predators. We went into east Detroit for a pysch evaluation that could not be avoided, in a rough area. It was not much different than paddling through water full of sharks. Lots of cold eyes, checking you out. Really pretty scary. Still, it's a fascinating and extremely sketchy place.

Considering where they went and how outrageous what they pulled off was, the video is just amazing!

surf4food

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2014, 07:41:54 PM »
Amazing footage here.  I've never been to Detroit and I'm interested in going there one of these days.  So many guys I served with when I was in the Navy are from there and believe me I've heard some horror stories.  I remember one kid  I was stationed with onboard the USS Mckee his past caught up with him (shot an off duty police officer) and eventually was arrested even though it was three years or so later.  Very sad and heartbreaking.  Hopefully the city will get it's shit together. 

RainWaves

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2014, 08:06:00 PM »
 WoW! That was Killer! Had no idea what to expect when looking at the title to this thread. Talk about going into a "dead orchard" and making lemonade. Very nicely produced video, from the filming to the music, and the stuff they were pulling off in very sketchy terrain. Plus 1 on what everyone else said about doing all that in a place you would never expect.

Five Stars and thanks for posting!
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XLR8

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2014, 09:53:35 AM »
Cool!  I'm glad some of you have enjoyed it.  I don't spend much time in Detroit but it is not all a barren wasteland.  I have some friends who would kick my can if they felt I was perpetuating that idea.  There are some great rebuilding initiatives and some great SUP shops that have helped to create a paddling and surfing community there.  So, there's a lot to be excited about in the D!
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DavidJohn

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2014, 10:06:58 AM »
Excellent vid..  :)

northstoke

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2014, 10:48:47 AM »
awesome thank you for posting.

blueplanetsurf

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2014, 11:10:26 AM »
very cool
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SaMoSUP

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2014, 11:38:11 AM »
In the industry it's called ski porn.

Blue crab

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2014, 12:16:18 PM »
Great video. Just beautiful. However, it is was it is. A really creative and artistic use of abandoned buildings. It is not an accurate representation of the city, or other struggling American industrial centers. 

The courage of those who stay & attempt to rebuild / harness a city's greatness is beyond words. That said the degree of suffering, depravity & institutional failure is far beyond that captured in these videos.  Watch the Wire.

covesurfer

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2014, 01:23:16 PM »
It is not an accurate representation of the city, or other struggling American industrial centers.  

The courage of those who stay & attempt to rebuild / harness a city's greatness is beyond words. That said the degree of suffering, depravity & institutional failure is far beyond that captured in these videos.  Watch the Wire.

I'd agree with your second paragraph, all of it, Blue crab. One of my cousins is in the process of moving back to Detroit as a sort of urban-regeneration pioneer. I agree it takes a lot of courage and fortitude to do such a thing. And the failure of so many bedrock institutions is nearly incomprehensible. It should serve as a red flag warning to all of us.

But, I think the abandoned buildings are an excellent metaphor that is completely representative of what's been going on in Detroit. I'm not talking about other industrial centers and cities. Only Detroit. Because it's a city I grew up in and I still have strong feelings about it.

To have seen it in it's glorious industrial heyday and see it now is astounding. Again and again, relentlessly, businesses closed, corruption flourished and the city lost it's way. What's left there is pretty damn scary. You have to go there and experience it first hand.

So much beautiful and incredible architecture and such a history of grandeur, much of it abandoned. All just shells. Just like so many of those left behind who have lost all hope or never had a remote chance for even a piece of the American dream. Ripe fields for sociologists to study and analyze for a long time to come.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2014, 01:27:13 PM by covesurfer »

Blue crab

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2014, 01:50:52 PM »
Your sentiments are much appreciated covesurfer. I am from Baltimore where the story is similar (the massive abandoned Bethlehem steel factory being a parallel) though nothing is on the scale of Detroit. I visit Detroit each year as my dad lives there & we always do the tour: it never ceases to blow my mind.

I think there is considerable room for hope in Detroit.  I left B'more at 18 thinking I would never go back, but ended up spending 10 wonderful years there as an adult.  Baltimore has undergone a really nice transformation over the last 20 years. Really fun place to live with many vibrant neighborhoods, restaurants etc…. I worked in East Baltimore and do not wish to sugar coat the city's continued failings (again watch the Wire). However, even within the communities that suffer the most, there are brave souls who work tirelessly and with pride to improve the city. 

pdxmike

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Re: Great skiing in Detroit's abandoned buildings
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2014, 01:54:35 PM »
Covesurfer--interesting to hear from you and others who lived or live there. 

Detroit is a great example of so many things.  It's problems started long before the riots,which were a result of problems even more than a cause.  One of the keys of its downfall was massive government investment in the highway system years before that encourage anyone who could afford it to move to the suburbs and commute.  That created a cascading effect--the more people who moved, the worse the tax base and property values became, encouraging more people to move...

Detroit is poor within the city limits, but if you drew a bigger ring to include all the other cities around it that expanded greatly in the 50s and through today, it would be fairly well-off overall.  (A similar thing is what has created a myth about Portland as an environmental mecca where everyone rides bikes and mass transit.  The city limits are small, and the restrictions within Portland have encouraged massive sprawl--Vancouver, Beaverton, etc.--that doesn't count in any statistics because it's outside the city limits.)  You can cross the street from Detroit to Grosse Point and go instantly from abandoned blocks to mansions. 

Detroit has more open, green, natural space than maybe any other major city in the country.  But that's because there's block after block of abandoned property.  There are pheasants, coyotes, and now urban farms there.  Very weird, and also weird that one of the routes to revitalization there may actually be farming. 

 


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