Sunday 16 December 2012

The early parks.

When I took the trip in 2006 I lived in Pickering, ON(I still do but whatever).
The first Indoor park I went to was Shred Central back in my inline days(I have no beef with inliners and have my skates still)

RIP Shred.
I'dd also discovered Cummer park in Toronto with some friends.

A "not terrible" park but a real old style of design. One side is really more bmx park.
Before I'dd moved out of Toronto Spectrum Sk8parks had built "TheHoof"
The Hoof, vanderhoof bowl, Leonard Linton Park. whatever you call it this park is popular with young and old. huge bowl and a little street, theres also some power boxes that you can run your own light off.
Lawrence and Weston Roads, Toronto, ON   Medium sizes pre-fab park on a fresh concrete base.
Georgetown, ON  I include this now cause it's a lousy park and I don't want to include it later.  The poor design has all lines meeting in the middle. It's like a drain, a toilet if you will.  probably another Victor, Ford & Associates park.
Spott

2006 trip finale

Coming back into Ontario we needed to make a stop and discovered there was a new park in town.
Kenora, ON  Nice Spectrum designed park by the waterfront.
The rest of the trip went fast and the parks we discovered were surprises. Not all that good but we hit them anyway. I'll hit anything once.
Marathon, ON
Espenola, ON
Well, that's the trip. It wasn't the beginning but it's far from the end.
spott

2006 trip cont. still

Edmonton, AB. Churchdowns park (possibly castledowns, IDK.)
We hit this park after a trip to West Edmonton Mall. I was nuts. There were so many types of stair sets.  The crazy storm was still chasing us so we set off across the prairie in the dark of night, stopping at a sketchy campground in Sask. where we pitched our tents in a wind storm.  Woke up the next morning to find a pile of tattered porn behind our tent. We drove all day to Winnipeg and after hitting a gay bar, back to the forks.
The next morning we hit the Forks again. By this time I was so sore I couldn't ollie and kept falling on the koi.
Leaving Winnipeg we hit Happyland, a small snake run and one of MB's oldest parks.
Then on to ON.
spott out

Saturday 15 December 2012

2006 trip cont.

Back on the mainland two things happened. 1. We somehow did not hit any of the multitude of Vancouver area parks. Recently a bunch of skaters hit as many parks as they could in one day in greater Van. In the video it was mentioned you could hit a different park each week and it would take you a year to hit them all.(http://recordsetter.com/world-record/skateboard-parks-skated-single-day/17631#contentsection)
2. It rained for the first time in 3 months.  The storm literally chased us through the mountains and into Saskatchewan.
So off on the Sea to Sky highway we went.
Squamish, BC.  Darn you RAIN!  this park is my great white buffalo.
 This Graffiti was the most memorable thing in Whistler.
Whistler, BC  The Old snake run was pretty cool but the rest was kinda disappointing.
 Kamloops, BC  This park is on my top 10 faves.  Sweet big park in the middle of a community park.  Did my first spine transfer. A bowl has since been added.
spott out

2006 trip cont...

Vancouver Island
Straight off the ferry and off to Nanimo, BC.  Pine trees! Now I carry a broom.
Ukee bowl. Ucluelet, BC. Bowl in the woods with a mini street section.
Tofino, BC
Vic west. Victoria, BC.  Great time on the island, now back to the mainland.
spott

2006 trip cont.

Revelstoke, BC
Promoted as a huge park, the ramps could have fit on a much smaller footprint. Asphalt is not the top choice for building parks.
Golden Freeride Park.  Golden, BC (where kicking horse mtn is.)  nice concrete park I couldn't make much use of cause I sucked much worse then. 
I'dd like to state Golden was before Revelstoke. Lazy but accurate.
Ben Lee Park.  Kelowna, BC.  I liked this park.
Penticton, BC. Great park by the waterfront with a bowl. Perfected Ollieing down the 5set(woo!) while Garrett rocked the sign with a smith grind.
Lumby, BC 

Cold Stream, BC.  This park had tons of lines and is a great example of maximising space. Any portion of this park could be made into a functional smaller park.  the bowled out corner and mini bowl were sweet.  first fakie rock.
Thus concludes Mainland BC on the way to Vancouver.
TBC spott

2006 trip cont.

Swift Current, AB
Nice clean park.  First "Picnic Table" I've skated(read - fell on a lot).  Garrett rocked this park.

 Clover Bowl
 30 foot full pipe
 Intermediate Section
Beginner Section.
This is Calgary's Millenium Park.  Canadas Largest Skatepark. We were there on the first day of school and had the place to ourselves on the second morning.  Besides being the biggest it was pretty average.
At this point I'dd like to give a shout out to the most kick ass photographer we had. Soo, you rock. I'm using your pictures and this is the credit. Please don't sue me!  http://www.facebook.com/hypersapiensTO/info

coming up next. more parks, duh!

the End

So I guess this is happening.
I dream of skateparks. I dream of skateparks everywhere. I dream of skateparks next to other skateparks.
After dreaming of skateparks I go skate. Having never become a great skater (I'm ok) my love is going to as many different parks as possible.
Rather than start with the first park (which at this point I can't remember if it was Shred Central or Cummer) I'm starting with the trip on which I first started counting.
In aug and sept of 2006 two friends and myself packed into a 2 door Honda Civic and drove from Toronto to Vancouver Island and back. We hit 22 parks in 21 days.
Some old park in Thunder Bay. (dying to get back to TB for their new waterfront park)

The Beautiful Palza @ the Forks in Winnipeg. (we hit this going both ways on the trip.)

Much more to come. Like the rest of this trip. The other 100+ parks I've been to. Injuries, detailed reviews(release the skatepark snob) And my first build.
Spott out.