" hErOEs On whEEls " ™ ...skate and rollerblade. ...to the editor. ...yourself or a friend. ...this site to a friend. editor's note: "My Summer Vacation" by Jamon | page 1 | page 2 | Late this summer we quit our day jobs. After loading up the truck with beef jerky, a couple of cameras, and our skate gear, we were ready to hit the road. We blew a million dollars on gas and fast food as we limped around the country, determined to score a gang of new skate park footage for the site on yet another rendition of the classic skate road trip. 12 states and a lot of cheap motels later, we returned to California tired and dirty, but we did capture a grip of detailed shots from over 100 parks. We've done all the driving for you - thousands of miles - and over the next few months we'll post pics from all over the country. You'll know what to ride [and what to avoid], including a few indoor skate spots to keep you stoked all winter until spring rolls around. Take a minute to sign up for the newsletter and we'll email you as we add new parks and archived shots of local hErOEs - in your town and across the US and Canada. Check out the pics below for a sneak peak at what's to come on the site this winter. ...scroll down for pics [ click pix to enlarge ] Skateparks are popping up every day. We got an email last week from a builder that claimed to have 100 parks scheduled for construction in the US for 2001. Sounds like a good start. On this tour alone, we ran into several parks we weren't expecting, cement barely cured, already crawling with rippers chased out of the local parking lots and schoolyards. One source of momentum in this skatepark boom we're all benefiting from is the influx of some serious ca$h from the skate industry. Take Vans for instance. How many mega-parks have they built this year? The new Milpitas, CA, facility opened in May and may be their best ever. It's huge. Looking at the footage when we got back from the trip, we divided just the *street* stuff into "small, medium and large" sections. In addition to the street obstacles, they've got a huge vert ramp, a 6-7 ft mini, and three concrete pools/bowls. A local named Kody emailed us to say they just finished their outdoor section. Bling-bling, baby! Thanks go out to Vans - keep it coming. ^ About 5% of the Vans Skatepark in Milpitas, CA We wish we could say that all the parks we saw were as sick as the Vans parks. But the truth is, most of us will never have a million dollar park in our town. The contrast of these big-bucks parks and little spots like Baker, Oregon, is crazy. Take a look at what these kids are riding. They've got a skatepark, but just barely. ^ Not exactly "big time," Baker, OR, locals make the best of what they've got The truth is that even though the parks are getting better everyday, skating lives and breathes in little rat-hole parks around the world. Skating still has one foot in the ghetto, and probably always will. It'd be great if we all had air-conditioned, gold plated, skate havens to chill at, but that's not happening any time soon. Until that time, our local parks will have to do. Thankfully, everyone from local churches to for-profit entrepreneurs are getting into the skatepark game, building more and better parks all the time. As our trip began in California, we were reminded of what the Parks and Recreation people alone are doing for our scene. For instance, right about where the LA and San Bernardino counties meet are four little cities w/ four separate skateparks - all just about 20 minutes from each other. ^ Claremont Skatepark, CA. One of four local city- operated skateparks Just one day into our tour we left California to see what was going on elsewhere. It didn't take long to find some great parks to ride. In fact, despite the fact that we're proud Cali locals, you don't have to fly out to the Left Coast to ride near-perfect parks. Las Vegas, for instance, has a handful of parks. Check out the indoor action from Planet Plywood. ^ LV local, Eric, with a big kicker to fun box transfer air at Planet Plywood - Las Vegas, NV As we left NV we quickly discovered a whole new kind of park in Arizona. We hear the lottery is funding construction, which helps to explain why the parks are so huge. 13 ft concrete walls sound big enough for you? With the exception of a couple of parks we've visited, we've never seen parks as big as what's going on in Phoenix. We'll have complete coverage of Chandler, Scottsdale, etc., coming soon, but until then check out a little northern AZ skate culture from Flagstaff. For a little town, they've got an excellent park, including a clover bowl, a snake run and a street course. ^ Bushmaster Skatepark Flagstaff, AZ We found a few random surprises for y'all in New Mexico, including coverage of the old - and the new - parks in Santa Fe. However, if you have a chance to skate NM, don't miss Albuquerque. Big time park with lots of great stuff there, including the *huge* bowls pictured here and a great street course w/ everyone's favorite ingredient - an x-large dose of flow! ^ This is just a slice of a super- kill park in Albuquerque, NM Colorado is a huge state with lots of parks. Unfortunately, a lot of the parks there [especially around Denver] are from one company that pumps out these pre-fab metal ramps and sets up carbon-copy parks all over the state. They're cool, but they feel a little mass produced - just not enough love in the design. We're stoked the locals have a place to ride, but how about some creativity? How about some flow??? The good news is that some varied terrain is just a short car ride away. We just posted an update on what is going on in Boulder . If you haven't seen those pics, you should check them out. In other news, a little town called Salida has a killer pool set-up [recently seen on ESPN2] you should ride if you have a chance. We think this might be a Team Payne production... we'll try and find out in the next few weeks. ^ Out in the middle of nowhere, big 'crete bowls in Salida, CO [ click pix to enlarge ] | page 1 | page 2 | [ © 2000 ] [ ABOUT ] [ CONTACT ] [ SUBMIT ] [ ADVERTISE ] [ HOME ]