Lennie Burmeister

July 26, 2007 @ 1:52 PM

Born in Liebenau, Germany in 1979. Grew up on
a farm. Started skateboarding in 1988. Has a
Skatepark in a barn. Pushed switch
skateboarding in Germany into the new
millennium—ten years early. Resides in Berlin,
Germany. Runs a skateshop with a bunch of
good friends. Is a positive human being, and
always fun to have around.
Is best summed up in one word: AMAZING.
And if that’s not enough for you,
here’s 2,621 more.

Words LUTHER Photos BASILE

How’s life?

Life? Oh, you know, it’s got its highs and lows. Right now it’s pretty good I guess. I’m still having a lot of fun skateboarding, our shop—Search & Destroy in Berlin—is finally exactly the way we want it to be. It’s going good with Arne (Krüger), Jan (Kliewer), Till (Kemner), and Matze (Bachert) the situation has stabilized, and we see the usual suspects here on a daily basis.

The shop started with a different crew, right? That
was Dimitri Stathis, you, and some other dude?

Dimitri and myself started the shop together with someone who already had another skateshop, but there were some differences in what we wanted the shop to represent, what we wanted it to feel like. At some point, we just stopped working for him, and when he bailed out we got back together with the guy who owns the room the shop is located in.

Hey, wait—this is your interview, not a Credit To
The Nation, right? Let’s talk about your life then.
Now, I know you’ve been skateboarding for way
over a decade, and you’ve been skating for Popular
skateboards forever…

…Yeah, well, Popular…hmm.

Huh? So the rumours are true, and by the time this hits the stands,
you’ll be riding Radio Skateboards?

Probably, yes, unless something crazy happens. If you ask me who I’d love to support, and where my heart’s at, the answer is Radio, definitely.

Right on. Next thing I know, you’re an actor, and you’ve had roles in
at least two bigger productions.

I co-starred in three movies, had supporting roles in some more, and did a bunch of short movies. It’s been less acting in the last six months though, because we had a lot to do with the shop, and we rebuilt an old cinema in the middle of Berlin, which is half cinema, and half club right now. The seats are gone, they only come in when movies are shown—couches and such, it’s really nice. You can go to the bar and have a drink, and you can still watch the movie. The rest of the time, it’s a club with parties and all that. And I’ve been skating a lot, too. We’ve done a lot of filming in the past few months. Mark Nickels is in Berlin right now, and he’s working on a project that contains parts from Jan Kliewer, Michael Mackrodt, myself, guys from Paris—Soy Panday, and Vivien Feil—and some folks from New York. We filmed a lot for that, should be really good.

New York, Paris, Berlin—that’s a nice axis.

That’s what I think.

So, there goes the last year. Let’s go a little further back, then. Does
your old Skatepark still exist?

Of course! The park at my parent’s place is still alive and kicking, still skateable. We had our summerparty again in 2006, with tons of guests, and a really, really good live performance by a beatboxing crew called “Four Example”…That’s four heads, and if you see them live, you tend to forget that they’re doing everything with their mouths. Pretty amazing. Close your eyes, and you immediately think there’s someone with a turntable. We’ve never had a summerparty where all the guests stood in front of the stage at the same time before. It was really good. And, yeah, we set up the
skatepark as well. I filmed some stuff there as well. I guess the footy will end up in Hello 21.

For those who don’t know, let’s break down the story of your
personal Skatepark really quick.

Okay, I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, there isn’t even a curb. However, there’s room—and barns. My parents didn’t really need one of those, so I started putting ramps in it as soon as I picked up skateboarding. When I was 13, we built a huge Miniramp and made the street area a little bigger. It’s small, you have to get a little used to it, but it’s actually a pretty good ride—and there’s virtually no other indoor skateboarding facility between Hannover and Bremen. To this day, whenever the weather is bad, cold, or whatever, tons of people go there. And I’m quite proud of it, too, because the park has seen its share of talent grow up. We built the park in 1992, and right now it’s the third or fourth generation skating it. Paco Elles, Tjark Thielker, Carsten Beneker…It’s astounding when you realize that there’s a whole bunch of good kids coming up, just because you gave them a place to go to.

1992 was when the first ramps were set up?

Not really, we built the mini and enlargened the streetcourse in 1992. From that point on, you can call it a skatehall. Or at least, that’s what I do. Before that we had a quarter and a kicker, or whatever. But 1992 was when things really started to gain weight in there.

It’s 2007, the official 15 years party is on!

Yeah!

So, 15 years of existence, does that make it
Germany’s oldest existing Skatepark/
Miniramp?

I don’t know. Might be, would be interesting to find out! To all the people reading this—I can’t tell. One thing is for sure though, the Miniramp is an old lady. It rides like that, too (laughs).

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