If you are into Baltic skateboarding you might have noticed Taliinn’s skaters enjoying winter in a new indoor park. The park is called Krulli and is designed, managed and run by skaters. We decided to get a bit more info about the place, so hit up Raul Urberg to get more info about the place. Also, check the video by Lauri Taht that documents the progress of Krulli park.
Hey, Raul. So we’ve seen a lot activity last year around Krulli indoor. Looks like everyone’s super hyped on the place. Could you briefly tell how it all came about? How did you build it etc?
Yeah, I’m very happy about the feedback on the park. If I remember correctly, it was January last year when Jaan Kokk got in touch with me saying he’s got an opportunity to build an indoor skatepark in Tallinn. It’s part of a big project in Tallinn and the people who run it wanted people to know about the place. So one way to do it was to build a skatepark. I did a couple of plans for the park, there was a bit of back and forth with Jaan and Siim Sild and in the end it was the first idea that we went with. Then some calculations on how much it would cost and about two months later we got the green light. I gave my notice in at work, another month went by and we started construction in the middle of May.
So, there are no pro building companies involved, it was all on you, right?
There was an electrician. But the rest of it we did by hand, yes. Me, Mark Taru, Lauri Täht and Mihkel Vahermaa.
Sick. Skaters for skaters.
Yeah!
Tallinn had indoors before Krulli, so when building it what did you want to make different from previous places?
I wanted it to be good. And good to me is a place where you can skate flat. Everything else is secondary. Everyone can enjoy skating flat but not everyone can enjoy a 3 meter runup to a down ledge.
It looks really street skating friendly, low impact obstacles etc. I feel like with space like that you could have built some big ramps and handrails and stuff but you went for a more minimalistic vibe. Does the layout reflect what you are into in skating?
I would have liked to have more rails, but there was just no room for everything. We didn’t want to make the mistake of having too much stuff in the park. Less is more, the nicest thing you can have in a park in my opinion is space to take time to set up for tricks and roll away in peace, without hitting the next obstacle right away. One more idea was to build a park where you can skate every obstacle at pretty much the same speed so you can do long lines and just skate around and enjoy. The long quarterpipe needs a bit more speed if you want to do long grinds but it had to be that high to allow you to get speed from, for example, a rock to fakie as well. So yeah, it does reflect the way I like to skate! Look at Nils’ last post. That’s what the park is made for.
Most things in the park seem accessible to all levels. What was the response from the scene to the park?
It’s supposed to be accessible for all levels so I hope it is, I personally haven’t had any feedback from younger guys but I hope they enjoy it.
The indoor is a part of a larger complex as far as I understand. There are some other places for people to visit ?
Right now there’s not much else to do on the complex (apart from an indoor tennis hall) but I hear they are working on some stuff. The indoor park is there for a couple of years until real development starts and if it’s a success we could get an opportunity to build another one.
Now it is Krulli’s first winter, right?
It’s Krulli’s first winter. It definitely makes winter more tolerable, there’s lots of sessions going on. Shout out to Kusti for keeping it going!
By the way is the park for skateboarders only?
Yeah.
Are people pissed off at you guys for it?
I don’t know, maybe.
Who is the biggest Krulli nerd? (Someone who skates there all the time or lives there basically)
I guess Kusti because he’s the one who let’s people in :).
What makes you stocked about Krulli?
Well, I’m happy to see that some Estonian OG’s skate there aswell. Number One crew for example.
