There’s this quiet town tucked away in the wild Slovenian countryside, just on the border with Croatia. The forests around it are a deep green, the rivers fresh and ever flowing, along with more mountains than you could shake a stick at.
Usually it’s quiet in this town called Osilnica (Oh-sil-nit-sa), but for two weeks every summer, something changes. The pace of life starts to speed up and chunks of longboard wheels can be found along the steep hairpin infested mountain road leading down to town. That’s when you know KnK Longboard Camp has arrived and it’s going to be a fun couple of weeks.
It’s been a wild ride, exploring the scene as it exploded over the last 9 years, it’s been quite a personal journey for us as well. Back in 2009, wanting to share our hills with other skaters, we hosted the very first KnK Longboard Camp with only 18 Slovenian and Czech longboarders.
The location changed to our current home, the Bear’s Guts track in 2011, the love of hosting skaters stayed the same but it took on a whole new level with what we consider a Freeride that truly feels like a “downhill skateboarding holiday”.
The Bear’s Guts track
Carved deep into the mountain side, we spend our days on the Bear’s Guts abusing its 18 hairpins that spread over 4 km. With run ups from a mix of fast, long, curved, straight, kinked, steep and even a couple of cruiser corners, you can ride this track sliding from a comfy 40 kph to a blazing 85+ kph on the steepest parts, just a little bit over 14% that descend into Corner 1 and 8.
So far more than 2000 riders from all over the globe left their downhill DNA on the Bear’s Guts which mutated into the contagious KnK vibes that pass on to new generations of downhill skateboarders.
KnK’s more than just a steep road with amazing tarmac and mobs going deep inside on those inside lines. It’s been a place in time and space where riders connect, learn and get gnar. With 2 camps, each 6 days long, there’s plenty of time to enjoy KnK, their way.
Time flies and things change but for now, KnK Longboard Camp remains. It’s a great pleasure to look back to 2009 and see what an iconic event it became over those 9 years and how much impact it made on downhill skateboarders across the globe.
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