Hamburg Longboard Spots - Dove Elbe

So this week it pulled me out of the city once again, but not quite that far. Actually it was both, board and bike as my girlfriend was with me, but I was on the board so this counts as a board spot, I guess.

So we started right at at the east end of the marked path. Medium quality ground, some cars and a nice view. And if you take your time to look around instead of racing along you find these things that make you wonder about the story behind it. Like this little wooden boat there. I mean, when was the last time that you saw a boat completely made of wood out on the water? It must have been the for some years or maybe even decades.

And then, of course, there are just beautiful views of the river and nature. And you are mad because you have a 18-55mm lens only. But on the other hand, I like this shot of the river in the front at the cows at the riverside just chilling there.

Maybe I should explain: We were at the Dove Elbe, a arm of the Elbe of about 14 km length. At the place I live the Elbe is about three times as far away. This makes the Dove Elbe a good place if you want to chill out at the riverside.

We then finally arrived at the Hamburg Olympic Center of rowing that recently was the location for the rowing world cup. But I like it a lot more when everything is calm and there is a small boat driving by every now and then. Also, most people driving by are so nice and greeting each other - this is traffic how I like it.

That's it for today. As allways, keep exploring and protect your spots

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Train Blues

Look into a person's eye. What do you see? Sorrow. Exhaustion. Boredom. At least that's what I see right now. I stopped smiling. I get home and close the door to my room. Lie down and recover from the day's horror. These people hurt me. I feel terrible standing right in the middle of them. But why do the feelings of random people even affect me? In fact it would be quite unhealthy to stay in this state of letting all this impact on you for too long. So is this why people just live alongside each other: There is just to much bad mood that would probably kill you if you let it have an influence on you. But this can't be the right way, not the best. Nothing big today.

Hamburg Bike Spots - Out of the City

So today I revisited a place I've shown you before: The Zollenspieker Fährhaus. It's a hotel situated right next to the ferry station at the Elbe. I've been there on my morning bike ride, if you remember that. This is a post with only photos because this is just about the beauty of the area.

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My first very own camera - Nikon D5200

So I finally made it to get my own camera. Finally I can film while I am on the board, take the camera where ever I want and don't have to worry about people being paranoid about their pictures when they are moved from the memory card to a hard drive.

May I introduce: The Nikon D5200. As you might have read in the news section I bought it mostly because of the filming perks like 60 FPS shooting and exposure adjusting. The only other difference to the D5100 I used so far is that I now use the auto focus system of the lower upper-class D7100.

Also I love the updated interface. The graphics showing the exposure settings don't only tell you the current settings, but also give a relation to the overall spectrum of each of the settings by a visual feedback in the outer circles. By linking your most often used settings to the "My Menu", Nikon frees you of searching the currently important item in all of the different menus.

The kit I ordered comes with the AF-S DX 3,5-5,6 / 18-55mm VR II G lense. In addition to the camera itself there will follow a decent bag (currently I am aiming for the Case Logic SLRC-205) and a standard tripod. However, I will try to get as much out of the camera as possible with these so far rather limited possibilities.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Slalom and Speed

Today's spot is a lot shorter but I guess you could say it's a double-spot. It consists of two runs: One is a bit longer and keeps you on a continuous but shallow slope. The other one is just a short downhill track of about 100 meters. I actually had to mark the downhill bit by hand as it is no official way.

So we took some empty glass bottles from home with us to put them up as pylons. Some might say that was a little risky because the bottles might brake when I go around them to close and blah. Well, one did brake but only at the top so nothing too bad. People have done dumber things than that and still there are enough of them alive to go on with dumb shit. So let's go.


You actually drop in with quite some speed to get along the flat bit in the middle. Also there is a little crack just 50 meters after the start but that isn't any real problem. We didn't use all the space we had because we were to lazy to get so many bottles although we actually placed the crate on top of one of the boards. And as there were cars coming it would've been way too much work to get so many bottles out of the way and back into place afterwards. It took quite some time to figure out a setup for the pylons that isn't too hard but not boring either. Once we got it right there were cars trying to get along that street.

Actually we decided that the second built was enough and shortly got over to the downhill bit. Unfortunately we didn't get any good shots of that because of shadow and the wrong lens and stuff. Not my best work.

However, Wednesday I will give you some information on my camera and Saturday we're going to visit a place that you  might know from the morning bike ride. 'Till then, keep exploring and save your spots.

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Alien Post - The Purge: Anarchy

Do you know this kind of movie that has nothing else than action for you but still makes you watch it? The Purge: Anarchy is that kind of movie - at first.

But not too seldom these stories are situated in a really interesting world that directly relates to our world: The rich people want more money, poor people have to find a way to keep themselves alive and both use absurd ways for that - including the trade of people and killing as a festive ceremony or group activity. Also the world the movie plays in is quite well constructed - everything is tuned in on the situation. For example how there are gangs that found together on the streets and fight together as well as businesses employing and equipping soldiers to fight for the night.

It is unbelievable how this movie that almost doesn't even need a story has so many twists in the plot. Some too many I would say. Still it is a movie I highly recommend to watch if you want a hour and a half with nice fights, a overall catching story and a light taste of society criticism.

Hamburg Bike Spots - Green, Planes, Sheep

Here we are, Hamburg Bike Spots episode one. This time it is not about a single route but a complete area of forest, dunes and slopes. The marked area on the map doesn't quite fit the actual area but it gets pretty close. I tried to cover as many of the individual spots as possible but as I said it's quite huge and many of the spots are hidden behind turns that don't actually look that inviting so although I personally kept exploring it for about two years I still find new trails and views every time.

We started at a little trail at the west-end of the area that leads through some trees and bushes. It is actually quite some fun to get along the tiny paths and try not to get your legs ripped apart by all the spiked branches reaching halfway over the path.









Following up there is a longer bit that is rather wide open and you can ride over the sand really fast and also have a wonderful view. You get the feeling of flying over all the little humps and also it feels like you aren't anywhere near Hamburg or even Germany.

You can also get along some small trails that have lots of soft sand on the ground - so wider wheels are recommended. And never stop, just try to drive through it and keep your front wheel straight. It's a great feeling to get across a hump that is fully covered with that sand and ride right down there.

Also, as seen on the map, there is that huge field with a airstrip. Actually there where ultra-lightweight planes flying that day. And also there were sheep. These sheep are part of the area and been there ever since I first explored the spot.




A bit further the surroundings changed to something rather forest-like. To the left was a hill of about 50 meters in total and there is a stair going up at one point. But going up is lame - let's get down there. In fact you could choose between the stairs - two meters forward from step to step - and a steeper bit. Guess what I chose.


However, this is it for today. More pictures, less text. Come back Wednesday for the first episode of the non-regular "Alien Post" series featuring a restaurant that I'm going to go to tonight or tomorrow evening. And still, keep exploring and save your spots.

Oops, I did it again - Morning Bike Rides

Storm it! Once again I got caught up getting ready for a bike ride instead of going to bed when arrived at home at six in the morning. This really get close to a bad habit as these hours decide whether your day will be awesome or terrible.

The obvious thing about going to bed at that time is that you won't wake up until noon. That might be part of a lifestyle for some people but I do not like that anymore as it destroys your biorhythm and leaves you with half of the day gone.

On the other side you might have a problem when you're inexperienced with staying up more than 18 hours at once. Because if you decide to stay up throughout the morning you'll have to keep it going until the following evening. What is just as bad as missing the first half of the day? Missing the second half. Or even most of the next night as well.

But once you are about to get out of your cycle or if it is already out of control, it is the best possibility to bring it back with one -- for your body terribly shocking -- night and day with out sleep. Because when you go to bed at the time you actually need to you will actually sleep. At least if you didn't use caffeine or anything alike to stay awake, they might actually get you into trouble in terms of sleep.

Hamburg Longboard Spots - Beating the Train

Welcome to the first episode of Hamburg Longboard Spots. Today I'll present to you a nice ride that will bring you directly to the city if you pursue it long enough. But this time I limited it to one third of the total length for this post as the amount of photos is already too damn high. Still I will add all worthy pics to an upcoming site that will include all the photos from all the posts plus some extra shots. So, let's get started!

Starting off at the Allermöhe train station we go west following the train tracks. As on this side of the train tracks there's no city but the countryside we get into a huge cloud of dust from a field machine right next to us. Not good for our lungs and not good for the camera either.Actually we got no possibility to race a train -- doesn't even matter as at least three other trains would have passed us on the way -- so we took our time to enjoy the ride (song of the week by Krewella) instead of rushing through.

As the camera I use still isn't my own I left it inside the bag for a long part of the first third of the ride because it seemed quite dangerous to me to carry it around my neck and in my hand while I was on the board. Also most of what I saw wasn't that awesome for photos. But I knew about some good possibilities to take a good shot.

For example there was this bridge leading us to the other side of a little river flowing along the fields. Well, hardly flowing. That's also the reason for the disgusting smell in some areas of the track.

For some reason there has to begin a dike right where the bridge is so the path has a bump of one and a half meters right before the bridge. The dike goes on to the left of it but only five meters to the right this wouldn't have been a problem. But this way you actually have to get off your board. What a shame! At least in the direction we were going as the bridge was very board-unfriendly. The other way round the bump was actually a nice help to get onto the board with at least some speed. 

The next problem was the tarmac at some parts of the track. Some small cracks are fine but you don't want to be forced to practice jumping because of them.

So we made it to the first train station and took a break preparing for the next part that generally looks better and also made a lot more fun what resulted in more photos.

As most horses were in their boxes already we had a hard time searching for one. But only for you I got a shot of a real beauty. Well, I found it right next to the path. Wasn't that hard to get.

Actually there was again a obstacle, a standard red and white bar. But my girlfriend had a nice solution. Just sit down on your board and roll on. As I was concentrated on taking the photos I didn't even bother trying it.

Some hundreds of meters further there was a handcrafted bench placed on the side of the road. Nothing you'd want to have standing in your living room but still it inspired us to shoot some photos.

I can't really describe it but in general I like places where you see man-made structures perfectly blending in to its natural surroundings. Or also if it didn't blend in so well in the beginning abandoned buildings that become one with the nature can be beautiful in their very own way.

But the best about the photos left and below is the contrast of my board, the red and black scarecrow, to the wooden bench and the green grass and trees. Also my girlfriend made a good job especially on the last one with the diagonal line of the plants on the ground, the rather decent focus on the bench and the relation of me to my board.

But then we we almost at the prison. Obviously I couldn't take many pictures of it as the guards don't really like that.

After passing the prison we approached the bridge that lead us over the motorway. Also nice for pictures and riding down on the other side. There, the motorway actually went through a tunnel underneath a freight yard with those huge cranes on rails moving containers from trucks to trains and the other way round. Unfortunately we didn't see more than the tops of the cranes moving from one place to another as there was a huge wall.

That's it for today. We didn't go on to the spot marked on the map as we didn't want to just ride along that boring straight road. But if you want to go home by train you should go there as the train station of Billwerder-Moorfleet is right next to it.

I hope you like this new series, tell me if you actually finished reading in the comments and also tell me what you'd like to be changed. Next Saturday we kick off the bike spots with a nice off-road spot. Until then, keep exploring and save your spots.