The thrill of it all
Photography by Fabian Reichenbach
Words by Arthur Derrien
The origin story of cg. – the crew turned brand that organised this picturesque skateboarding get-together – is both incredibly relatable and unlike anything most of us will have experienced (or likely ever will). Its main protagonists are Krys Ondrejek and Shqipron Bobaj, and their passion-infused friendship is at the heart of this tale: think two friends from neighbouring towns whose destinies were inextricably linked from the get-go, simply from being the only 13-year-olds in the area to be obsessing about the possibilities of the 4-wheeled plank. Classic. Of course, then came the elders who influenced them to get out in the streets, more time was spent lurking at skate spots, from which fresh relationships stemmed (which only poured oil on the fire), and before they knew it these late teens now had their own little gang of mates from all over (Bobaj’s parents are from Kosovo, Krys is Czech, Michael Brunner Madagascan, others were Croatian, Brazilian, Korean, etc.) to go filming and party with: ‘Colour Group’ (as they called themselves at the time) was born.
Michael Brunner, backside nosegrind tailgrab, Zürich
Now without knowing anything else of this story, it’s easy to imagine how this thing would organically snowball into a little brand, which they’d in turn use as an excuse to do cool shit. Mainly because well that’s essentially the template for how most of the authentic-feeling companies in our little world have come to thrive and produce videos/products we lap up.
Willow Voges Fernandes, slappy 50-50, Buchs
Where the plot does start to sound a bit more unusual is that these lads did not grow up in Barcelona, London, Paris or any of the other high-density, skate-mecca melting pots, but in Switzerland of all places, in the tiny northern district of Aarau. Now I’ve been to this place and honestly, just the fact that there are enough skateboarders in the area for a crew to even exist in the first place is wild in itself. That it has produced skateboarding that’s been appearing on the Thrasher and Free sites for the last 5+ years, with pros from all over the world passing through it every summer is astonishing. How did it arrive at this? The same reason I found myself there back in 2022 on our Vans collab trip: Bobaj.
Michael Brunner, frontside boardslide switch pole-jam 180, Sursee
It’s no secret that filmers are the ones carrying this industry on their backs, slaving away at their various clip-chasing enterprises with the possibility of payment for their work usually only existing as vague ‘maybes’, often taking on the jobs of spot guide, team manager, weed locator and shoulder to cry on as well as pointing cameras at their self-absorbed mates for eight hours a day… Well Skipi is up there as one of the most selfless we’ve ever come across in that category. One of the main reasons this article exists is that skaters from all over the world are drawn to the guy. He’s just got that kind of infectious energy and dedication that gets the best out of people, that you want to be around… Krys even described the line-up for this trip as being dictated by “it’s all just people I met through Bobaj and got along with!” and the location for their Airbnb as simply being chosen because “it was close to Bobaj’s home so that he could take care of his daughter in the evenings.” Because yeah, in case him just doing what he does for the culture day in day out wasn’t legendary enough, you’ve got a healthy dose of childcare thrown into the mix for good measure! And he’s got a second kid on the way too…
Kilian Zehnder, nollie backside nosebluntslide, Zürich
But there’s another piece to this puzzle that can’t go unmentioned, especially as it says a lot about the levels of shared passion we’re working with here and why it’s such a huge part of these two’s beautiful friendship… The accident. When on our video call about all this I asked what led them to pull the trigger and go from just being a lowkey crew of mates that puts out edits to a full-on company making clothes, putting on events and releasing projects on the scale of this one, Krys – who’d appeared on my screen in a wheelchair a few minutes earlier – spoke up.
Schianta Lepori, suski grind, Baden
“In 2012 after having been in London for a while working for a fashion magazine, I came back to Switzerland in the summer to go on a trip with Bobaj and all the homies and had a really bad accident,” he explained. “It was August, so really hot, and on the way home from the trip we decided to stop around Lausanne to go for a swim, and jumping in the lake I hit my head on the ground and broke my neckbone… It was just really bad luck… But I’d just come back from London and with everything I’d seen and everything that was happening at the time, I’d been feeling like I’d just fallen back in love with skating. It was such a good time in skateboarding. I remember going to a Nike SB Demo at Bay Sixty6 and how special it felt seeing Lewis Marnell and all those Gs… Skateboarding was just in such a strong place.
Martino Cattaneo, boardslide ollie over, Zürich
So anyway after a while of being in hospital, in so much pain that I wasn’t really able to sleep or do anything, something… It’s hard to explain. Maybe it was like out of wanting to make sure I’d always stay a part of the crew, like wanting that security? But anyway I found myself on my laptop spending time doing designs and started to think that maybe if I turned what we had into a brand we could do a lot with it, especially after having just seen how skateboarding was so linked to fashion at the time. It felt like a way for me to never leave the crew, you know? So I talked to the homies and theywere down! It started really small at first, just doing a few shirts, getting the artwork all wrong, practically losing money… So like more of a hobby, you know? But then we did a launch event – sort of based on what I’d seen happen in London every Thursday – with the premiere of the first video and some clothes and that was a turning point. It was a success so we started doing one every year and 200 or 300 people would come from all over Switzerland, the clothes would sometimes sell out, and we realised that there was a whole community (both skaters and non-skaters) that wanted this kind of thing here because it didn’t really exist… So we kept going.”
Simon Perrottet, frontside 180 kickflip, Zürich
Myself living in a city where skate events are so common that you sometimes catch the organisers struggling to even just give out product at them, and where it’s standard to hear things like, “These shoes are stinking I can’t be arsed to skate,” and “Nah not going to do anything today I went pub last night,” needless to say Krys’ drive was pretty fucking inspiring. But what really gave me a window into the unshakable positivity that fuels their whole operation, was hearing how viscerally he described the afternoon they spent bombing the hills of Chur on this trip, one afternoon when Bobaj had to hang back to edit the new Michael Brunner cg. part (in a day) because it had been decided at the last minute that they’d premiere it in Aarau while everyone was in town (see what I mean about him going above and beyond?).
Schianta Lepori, frontside lipslide to tailslide, Zürich
“It was just this epic moment,” Krys told me, “We were driving up the hill knowing very well it was going to rain in the next 30 minutes, but it was so beautiful that we kept going up, and without warning Willow and Martino just opened the van door as we’re driving and jumped out! Like without saying anything! It was hectic as fuck! Next thing we knew the other van turned in and two more jumped out of that one to bomb the hill and instantly all these guys were going sooooo fast. Like I’m trying to film them but the vans couldn’t even keep up! The two at the back got speed wobbles and ate it, but the van doors were still open as we were driving so they just jumped in as we were moving so we could try to keep up with the other two. It was so gnarly dude. And I just have this image of Martino with his arms wide open below us going so fucking fast, all this with the best possible looking Swiss scenery all around us… It was unbelievable. And when we caught up with them at the bottom they were so fucking hyped like ‘fuck you see that rock?!!! I almost hit it! And then when you went around that car?!!!’ etc., shaking and shit, talking a million miles an hour! And it had already started to rain for like the last 5-10 minutes of the hillbomb but at the bottom there happened to be a spot: that long ride-on grind. And Willow was so pumped that he basically just did it first try and then again 180 out as the sky went completely dark, and then it rained really
hard for two hours straight as we drove to the premiere. It was crazy.”
Willow Voges Fernandes, ride-on 50-50, Chur
And the best thing about this whole thing? Just seeing how gassed Bobaj was watching his mate put into words the rush he got from this, eyes glistening with how exhilarating it had been to witness… I don’t think I’ll be able to do justice to just how heartwarming that was in the context of what I’d just learnt about them, but what I can say is that his description was so emotive and adrenaline-packed that the transcription software I use had that whole bit of the recording down as ‘skydiving’ lol. The thrill of it all just sounded too extreme for its poor little AI brain to consider it to be ‘just’ skateboarding.
Click below for more of Fabian’s photos of the cg. crew
