Banshee Bungee
I was at a spot recently where I joked that I could have used one of these bungee cord launchers. At Gabriel Park here in Portland there is a love seat on a banked wall. I’ve tried on several occasions to make it over and even come close, but the trouble is, it’s an uphill push. There’s a fine line between loose enough to make it and too tired to get enough speed. Trouble is, if I used a bungee cord to get the speed to make it, I would get much satisfaction from making it. I suppose if you are trying to get a photo or video footage for your sponsor this might make sense, but it rubs me the wrong way. Then again, it looks like it has the makings of a good dork session., and I’m not above using the same technology to launch a glider. Banshee Bungee.
Do you mean like this shot
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=177368772&albumID=1849505&imageID=26643977
Well the plus side of using the bungee launcher is seeing the the skechey launches that occur.
Not with a Bungee…just foot power.
Funny you should mention Gabriel and bungees cause around five months ago someone tied a giant bungee cord to one of the benches there. You’d get someone to pull it back and hold it while you got on your skate and then it would suck you up the hill so fast you’d be hard pressed not to get air (or speed wobbles among other things) going up the banked wall. So fun.
I think it was the same make as the one in the picture above.
ahoy-hoy!that flatbank wall looks the shit, i gotta try gabriel park, cross st’s anyone?
There’s a link to directions over at Skaters for Portland Skateparks.
As far as ‘cheats’ like this go, when I was a kid in the eighties, we’d loop a bicycle innertube around the wheelbase and grab it with our hands. Easy 360 ollies, extra foot or two off the kickers. Fun, but I wouldn’t photograph it.
I’ve wanted to try our bungee there too, that’s a tough spot to push up to!
Thanks for the link Randy,I am a lazy one.
I didn’t see that bank/wall in the overhead shots of the park, from what I CAN see it looks like the parks most valuable asset.
i’d like to see these all over the west hills by 2012. i imagine bungee tenders charging a small toll per launch.
jakeandannoy – tactually, the park’s most valuable asset is the long curb that runs the entire length of the park and and acts as a retaining wall (with tight transition) as it gets further and further downhill.
then i gotta get down there and see this place cause it looks like a bunch of giant speed bumps with a cope’d burm or something. but that’s me, I didn’t recognize Belvedere park and I’ve been there a few times,Im always the last of my friends** to recognize spots we frequent,in skate videos.
**All the stuffed animals I prop up on my bed for company
rather, spots in skate videos,that we frequent.
Im a fancy gentleman who writes well, see?
I’ve gone over that loveseat a few times. It’s frontside, and it’s not hard–except for that lousy uphill push.
I agree the curb is the best part. The rest of the park is so-so.
Dunno if this link’ll work ’til I post it… Not my coffee… A good shot of a very handsome man, taken by Welsh Pete, showing the loveseat.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Pr2piU96ebI/ShwZSsrzNAI/AAAAAAAABmg/I2CuzIOKiVA/s1600-h/DSC_0052.JPG
Jake, your friends go skating with you?
they don’t go skating with YOU….
…..do they? Cause, Mr.Padington said his phone was where he couldn’t here it so then I called Randy and he said he was at a funeral and couldn’t get out but then if he was really at a funeral why would he answer his phone? Why would he answer his phooooonnne?
hey, jake, im nursing my fucked up knee right no but gabriel park is about five minutes from my house. hit me up next time you are around
Marek- I definitely will,hanks.
Hard part is getting Mr. Padington’s lazy ass out on a dry day.
Injuries suck ,man. I usually drink or use pills that works to some extent.