Name?
Daniel Krassowski, but the most people know me under my nickname “Krasse”
Place of birth?
I was born in Ochtrup/Germany. It´s a 20 000 people city near Münster and the dutch border.
Where do you live now?
I am living in Münster for about 4 years now.
Any shout outs to homies/sponsors (let’s get those over with now)?
My sponsors are IrieDaily/Berlin, RUMOR Skateboards and I got some shoes from CONS. Black Heaven Skateshop Münster and Shifty Sk8 Shop Enschede/NL are alway nice to me, too – thank you all so much!!! (the rest shout outs to my friends later, ok!?)
Germany has awesome beer. How many beers do you drink a day?
Hehehe….the relationship between beer and me is a special one. I could write a book about that. My hometown is a beer dominated city, where I was partying a lot and was working for a beer dealer. I have lived and seen, and still do, everything good and bad, you can imagine. The coolest and most insane action with my friends and also for example the father of a friend dying from alcohol – and I had to deliver the beer to him every week…. I like to have a beer, maybe some more…but, I have seen what can happen, if you´re loosing control. Let me say, I am afraid of beer sometimes and everybody should be! Not to sound too bad, I really like to have a few beers with the session people after skating in the summer, but I usually don´t drink at home and not alone. Münster is dangerous, because it´s so nice here in the summer and barbecue, skate and parties are around on a daily basis…check yo self before you wreck yourself! That´s it.
What is your favorite beer?
I totally love Grolsch from the Netherlands, the 0,450 l Ploppbottles! …and Tyskie and some other polish beers….and many more…
Have you ever been to Greece?
No, never. I´d like to! I have seen a lot of the nice spots in all the clips, like to enjoy the nature and when I´m listening to Mikis Theodorakis on my mp3 player walking by the greek restaurant here…yeah, I should! I met a German student couch surfing here in Athens for a few weeks, he told me something that stuck with me; “When you visit Berlin you should do the tourist thing, and the cool stuff”.
If I visted Munster what would be the “tourist” thing to do, and what would be the “cool stuff to do”?
At first, Münster is not Berlin. You´re having about 4 million people in Berlin and 300 000 in Münster.That´s a tenth and we are not having the same kind of tourism here in Münster. But we have! I am living at a small nice place in front of a Bar with a beer garden, Grolch (!) and some nice old houses. There are groups of normal tourists watching around, also my house and I´m feeling like an animal in the zoo sometimes. In the center, we have the room where they ended the 30 year war, there are tourists, too. If you mean skate tourists,, I have to say, Berlin is overhypend and too full for me nowadays. It was good and familiar years ago, whe my friend Filip lived there. It´s still nice to skate, there are so many sots and a hole bunch of super nice people. I love it, but take it slowly with the right people. Münster is small, it´s not hyped to much at the moment, but there is a tight scene and we have good skaters here. It´s a student city, so there are “tourists”, too. Many came to study and skate, stay for a while and leave some day, some stay forever… So, if YOU wanna come to Münster, let me know and we´ll see…you will have a good time!!!Ok, in the winter it´s ruff….
How are the tourists in your scene?
Well, there are guys from Münster, born and raised, talented and sometimes underrated. For example Felix Bergmann, for me the greatest real Münster guys, and a few more. Some got lost in the party scene and never found the way back on board, others are still skating Münster for ages. But, the most people here are from all the small towns around Münster, like me. The combination of studying, working in the skatebusiness, not too big, not too small, a lot of nice girls, a very good party scene, very good for families and kids, trees and nature…well, Münster is a perfect city for a lot of people.The mix of all these people builds a colourful Münster skate scene with also a lot of young fresh guys to come and for me, a still chilled underground feeling. There was a guy from Serbia skating our local spot. He told me, he was working in Germany, came to skate Münster a little bit in the evenings and was sleeping in a wrecked caravan…nice one!
Mostly old people, or some young blood as well?
When you think of the Münster Monster Mastership, you know, almost every skateboard legend has been to Münster! There is some industry based here and we also had the Monster Magazine in town some years ago. a lot of things started here, so there are deep roots in this not too big city. A lot of the old guys from back in the days, whe I was young, are still skating the bowl and you are meeting them in the summer. Today, WE are the old guys, too, hahaha…and there are a lot of our dirty thirties!!! Münster is full with these grey bearded cobble stone junkies. The scene is well mixed and I think, the younger guys have respect. We all skate together in the streets, one of the good parks here or the skate hall. It´s like there are some small groups, who are also have much fun skating together. for me, it´s a chilled and familiar scene with a long history, very good people frome here and there and there is no end to see. An example: I´m skating with Gerd Rieger, who is a skateboard and photo legend (bailgun.com) and in the early fourties, and also with the 15 year old son of Ralle Middendorf, our McTwist hero! My friend Filip´s twins and also my kids skate together with us and you can say, from 10 to 45 years, we have it here!
Any projects you are working on right now?
As long as there is a camera, some time and somebody, who is motivated, I´m always working on something. I almost finished that insane “Ungeschminkt und faltig” videoproject, where all the equipment was bad and got broken…and now, I still need good equipment, but I am filming a lot of guys, I think, should be seen a little bit more!
We have some good people, they are motivated to skate the streets and we have a good amount of spots. You just have to search anddon´t be a pussy – can be rough here and the winter is not so nice… I also wanna skate as much as I can, film a nice part, too and help my man Basti with RUMOR Skateboards, a little thing from here…and some jobs and other things more to do…….never ending…
When you and your friends aren’t skating what kind of stuff do you get into (besides drinking awesome beer)?
It´s totally different, what everybody´s doing to have a life, living his (or her) dream. The dreams are different, too….
well, we have the fathers, who have to work for their families and also wann spend time with them. So, there is not that much time to skate. But, maybe, they are enjoying it more in these very few hours!? I did, when my kids where around and I had that hard job back in the days. Others do a normal job and skate almost everyday in the evenings afte work. The students skate in the mornings, in the evening, are ghosts in the exam phases and come back after months with white faces and lost skills.
We have barbecues at our small harbour area and the canal, go shopping and watching nice girls while drinkin a coffee, chill around and watch skatevideos, there are some videopremieres, cycling, because Münster is a bycicle city with nice bike roads.
So, in Münster, the most people just enjoy their lifes, work, skate, study, live – that´s it and you can do it well here!
You mentioned the weather is getting better and people are out doing stuff… generally how many months a year is it too cold/snowy to skate?
This year 2012/2013, we had about 6 fucking months of winter. In Münster, it means, snow, or bad cold rain creeping in your clothes, wind, not that much light over a so called “day”, little stones everywhere, so youcan not slip on the snow, one skate hall, some parking houses, but bust and just a few roofed spots for flatskatibg….the winter is not siberian style, but bad. Half of a year, too much!!! It´s hard, but sometimes you can skate outside when the sun is shining,it´s about minus -15°C and the sunis shining – I like it, when it´s not too long.
Do you snowboard in the offseason?
I never tried snowboarding, maybe someday. To be honest, I don´t think I need it. I don´t like to be fixed on the board and skateboarding is enough for me. One life for skatboarding is not enough, so, there is no space for snowboarding. I skateboard also in the winter. The seasons belong to our area and even if it´s hard, I grew up with that and I still like to fuck the winter! It´s a good feeling for me to find a day that´s skateable and even do some nice things and be outside! Being outside is important for me and I have to skate. But, if there´s a chance, I will try some day.
(Part two will be released soon…)
