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Pools & Parks (4228 Posts)
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Skateparks of Birmingham AL
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On 11/24/2004
Barr
wrote in from
Israel
(62.219.nnn.nnn)
I was wondering if anything was happening in Bham in the last year. My wife's family are there, so we visit occaisionally. I skated a skatelite ramp park with a nice mini in vestavia hills, which I understand had some renovations recently. Does anyone know what they did, and if there is a proper bowl in the making there?
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Yo Chris and Yo 'skater', ref: Wally's parks...
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On 11/24/2004
John Dillon, Team Fun
wrote in from
United States
(151.200.nnn.nnn)
Hey guys, when I said Wally's parks are the best, I was comparing his to the other 'skate parks' in the mid-atlantic region. When making this comparison, his parks are the best. His design/build at St Charles, southern Maryland,aka (Waldorf)is a blast, his design/build in Greenbelt is yet to be built and on paper looks like a good one despite the postage stamp-sized site on which Greenbelt has decided it will be built. His build-only at Arlington,Va, is a nice park, though it has a few design flaws...this was designed by Purkiss-Rose(who shouldn't be in the skate park design business at all).Neither should those unknowns who built the abortion in Pigtown, Baltimore....built into a hill w/water always flowing thru cracks in the bottom, crete-covered coping, funky, non-consistent trannies....a broom-swept,surface only great for tatoo-removal! Lansdowne is a vast,flowing, surf-style skate park, not to be compared as it is a dinosaur of a park and built ages ago....my fav skate park, yet it has no vert at all! Another Purkiss-Rose park, truly an abortion, is Lancaster, Pa's...this one was sub-contracted out to the same blind monkeys who shape Whitetail's half-pipe each year(complete morons) It does have a bumpy full-pipe, though. Vans, Potomac Mills, is indoor and wooden except for the concrete bowls which were nicely made, unfortunately, Vans is scheduled to close dec 31st. Now, to truly see abortions with the innards left hanging all about, then you must see all these lame,flow-less, and super-expensive per square foot(way more so than the concrete skate parks) put together by the playground companies who have 'skatepark' divisions and who put out a bunch of temporary crap...made of steel, skatelite,wood, armour-whatever,etc. the only good thing about these companies' products are when they get torn down to make way for a concrete skate park. Wally bids and gets a lot of biz building Purkiss-Rose's designs....and he tweaks some of the designs a bit to make the park a bit better...but he cannot re-design the whole abortion of PKR's designs...he must follow the design as much as poss....if fact, he'd probably rather win the design phase of the said skate park all together and do the build as well. Not everyone is going to like all designs or all his designs.....what I like you may not prefer and vice versa....I wish a Grindline, Airspeed, or Dreamland design/build would make it in my neck of the woods....I am trying to make that happen...and so is Knucklehead and a bunch of others....but those guys are creating great skate parks closer to their homes and are very busy and backed up making great skate parks all over skate-friendly states of Oregon and Washington state, as well as other rocky mtn states and the mid-west. BJS and Rob Dyrdek are creating great skate plaza-style skate parks that emulate the obstacles found in the streets. We all must adapt to the different skate park designs, the ones that challenge us are the most memorable ones and the ones that are lame by most people's standards ae the ones that need not be repeated again. That's why, 'skater', I must chime in to inform you that the cookie-cutter, modular 'skate parks' are way over priced and that the companies who make and install them(the playground companies) are the ones who are guilty of extortion and, thus, giving the general public a bad experience w/'skateparks'. When Wally built the Arlington,Va skate park he just broke even on this park...he said if he had designed it, he could have done it less expensively and he'd have done a better job creating more flow to the skate park. Anyways, I hope to skate w/you guys some time au futur and I wish you and everyone else a Happy Thanksgiving!
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Los Gatos Park
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On 11/23/2004 Stan
wrote in from
United States
(66.15.nnn.nnn)
Does anyone know where the new skatepark is going in Los Gatos? Read this in paper after Vans Milpitas closed.
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Work
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On 11/23/2004
-JC-
wrote in from
United States
(65.19.nnn.nnn)
Bad enough to wake up to 6" of snow this morning, but when I get to work, who do I find camped in my park? Olson, Stubbs, and Blair Watson. WTF?!? Seriously; it was a great session, and the kids that showed up got some tips and some excellent ride time. Thanks for the fun, boys!
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wally
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On 11/23/2004 skater
wrote in from
United States
(216.165.nnn.nnn)
yep. that name is so overrated. if you should work in the skatepark industy you would see the sickening reality of the people that make money behind that name.
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re:wally parks
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On 11/22/2004 chris olden
wrote in from
United States
(67.121.nnn.nnn)
Hey, The one "Wally Park" we have here in the greater Sacramento area, is an abortion of a skatepark. 9000 square feet, bad lay out, and about hip deep at the deepest. I don't know why Wally even bid on it. It's too bad that he doesn't design/build a GREAT skate- park for some lucky community. No vert in Wally's parks? What has the world come to? chris olden
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Hey NC Lngbdr!
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On 11/22/2004
John Dillon, Team Fun
wrote in from
United States
(151.200.nnn.nnn)
That's great that Wally is designing AND building Charlotte's new sk8 pk....w/a 600k budget, that should turn out to be a nice big skate park....you need some concrete waves down there as the NC's atlantic coast has plenty of the liquid ones. Wally builds the best.
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Wally parks
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On 11/22/2004
knucklehead
wrote in from
United States
(68.232.nnn.nnn)
I have skated many parks that CA Skateparks either did the design/build or just the build. I feel they do great work and you will have a blast on your longboard in their parks.
However, some of most (98%) of the parks they design are lacking true vert. They do what is known as "Wally Vert", where the wall goes just to vert. Seems you have to do some hand holding and prodding during the design phase to get real vert from them.
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Greenwood Village, CO
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On 11/22/2004
Duane G.
wrote in from
United States
(198.178.nnn.nnn)
Well, this isn't everybody's favorite park in Colorado, but nevertheless a bunch of us have a lot of weekday lunchtime fun there - over the weekend some people trashed the deep end of the 8' bowl by dumping good sized rocks (8-10" in diameter) into it; up to about a foot deep. I went by on my way to work this morning to see if there was any remaining snow/ice from the weekend snowstorm, and a GV parks employee was tossing them out. I was just speechless; why would anyone do that? Well, perhaps it's because the city of GV has zero tolerance for tagging, it gets cleaned up right away, and these folks don't like their work being destroyed?
I wonder, just being philosophical, how do we deal with people like this? I worry that the city is going to lose patience and just shut the place down. I guess we all need to appreciate what we've got, while it's available!
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New Concrete Park (Thank God) Planned for Charlotte, North Carolina
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On 11/22/2004
North Carolina Longboarder
wrote in from
United States
(63.167.nnn.nnn)
According to: http://www.skatecharlotte.com
There is a $600,000 budgeted concrete skatepark to be built in Charlotte with construction starting in December. California Skateparks (http://www.skatedesign.com) has gotten the bid. They have built alot of your great parks on the west coast. What do you riders think of them? Do most of those parks accomodate longboards or am I going to have to break down and buy a shorter board than a 36"?
North Carolina Longboarder
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Correction of last Potomac Mills Vans Closing
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On 11/20/2004 lbk
wrote in from
United States
(69.143.nnn.nnn)
I ended up skating with Brian and WesE starting at the 4pm session. Vans is planning on closing the Potomac Mills Park on 12-31-04 as previously decided. Guess it was a bad rumor about the earlier closing date that caught many people including Seth.
Sure will miss the Vans banks, bowl, and right-hand kidney but damn it was crowded today (avg. age was 12, too many inliners, and runaway boards landing in the pool).
Looking to still do a banked slalom outlaw race possibly the evening of 12/4. Also there might be a mid week day session in the works to skate the place empty, basically an "Adult Swim" session. More info. to follow.
DR
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ARC noise
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On 11/20/2004
knucklehead
wrote in from
United States
(68.232.nnn.nnn)
Keep us informed if there are any noise complaints from the residents.
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ARC ramps/Williamstown, Mass
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On 11/19/2004
Brad
wrote in from
United States
(206.165.nnn.nnn)
Hey knucklehead, yeah I see the future of this park looking like those "ghetto" pics. and this too, is built next to a development...about 50 feet away. It doesn't look good as far as people having to listen to that noise goes. It's too bad. Who ever ordered the stuff didn't listen, as I was pushing Skatelite constantly. Sure, you have to replace it once in a while, but it's got to be the best surface (besides concrete) out there. These ramps are expensive too. They DO seem to be well built though, and the transitions are nice. If they could just cover the surfaces...
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Sorry
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On 11/19/2004
Dan Hughes
wrote in from
United States
(66.52.nnn.nnn)
for the double post (if I could edit, I would delete one of them...)
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Arlington, WA Update (Thanks to Chris Raezer)
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Arlington, WA Update (Thanks to Chris Raezer)
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ARC skatepark in Mass.
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On 11/18/2004
knucklehead
wrote in from
United States
(68.232.nnn.nnn)
Yep, it is true. The slickness of the steel ARC ramps will be replaced with rust in no time.
Wait another 4 years. The ramps will fall apart, kids will lose intrest in the McPark. Maybe then you can get the real deal... CONCRETE!
Check out this site. There are some movie clips that show how loud ARC steel ramps are. Turn those speakers on! http://www.johnbracken.com/arc_tulsa.htm
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DC Vans Open for only another week & few days
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On 11/18/2004 lbk
wrote in from
United States
(69.143.nnn.nnn)
Vans Potomac Mills Now Closing Weekend after Thanksgiving
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tin can pushboard park
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On 11/18/2004 d!k
wrote in from
United States
(68.101.nnn.nnn)
all the grass is brown...
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New Skatepark in Western Massachusetts...finally!
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On 11/18/2004
Brad
wrote in from
United States
(206.165.nnn.nnn)
After 4 years of selectman's meetings and pleading, an outdoor park is finally taking shape in Williamstown, Mass. The ramps are made by American Ramp Company, and are heavy steel. The construction is completely powder coated steel. The 5 foot halfpipe is completed, and there will be quarter ramps and fun boxes, and the biggest grind rails I have ever seen (the rail itself is about 6" in diameter)
Although the ramps are professionally made, the only drawback is the slick surface. it's like skating on a car. very shiny, slippery metal. according to ARC, the slipperiness will go away with usage.
anyway after 4 years it has finally happened, and this does not include an attempt by myself in 1977 to get a park.
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PV in Phoenix
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On 11/18/2004 jake
wrote in from
United States
(150.135.nnn.nnn)
I heard this park got closed recently due to extreme violence and will not re-open until further notice. Any info?...RIP?...lets hope not.
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montclair
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On 11/17/2004
caddy
wrote in from
United States
(64.12.nnn.nnn)
great park! any takers thursday night?
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conn.
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On 11/17/2004 ?????????
wrote in from
United States
(205.188.nnn.nnn)
thanx for the info if i move there we'll skate!!!!!!
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connecticut living
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On 11/17/2004 ct resident
wrote in from
United States
(67.87.nnn.nnn)
milford, orange, norwalk ...reasonably safe/cheap guilford, madison, branford ...safe/affordable stamford ...one of safest big cities in USA/very happening/expensive darien, greenwich, new canaan, westport ...very safe/insanely unaffordable
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conn.
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On 11/16/2004 ??????
wrote in from
United States
(64.12.nnn.nnn)
so what were do you think is the coolest- reasonable price of living-town in conn. that you you would recomend for a 23year old kid who wants a nice quit safe town to live in?? thanx
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