From Surfin’ Turf to Bell E. Buttons, to The Turf, to buried, to resurrected and buried again, to dug up and re-poured. The Turf is now open again! This areal shot is from drone footage circulated by the Mayor of Greenfield Wisconsin, Michael Neitzke, who was instrumental in making this momentous occasion move from just a dream to a reality. Midwesterners of the 80’s and skaters of today, rejoice!

It was way back in 2009 that rumors were floating around about a possible rebirth of the Turf when the current tenants were allegedly not going to renew their lease. That turned out to be false, or so we thought. Then it turned out to be sort of true again, in that they had obviously vacated the property during the freeway ramp construction, which led to the temporary excavation in 2010. The locals didn’t give up! In 2019 it was announced that WDOT sold the land to the city of Greenfield for one dollar. The plan was to turn it into a new (old) skatepark, the old bowls would be brought back to life and new terrain would be added outside the existing footprint. Why can’t I find an internal S&A link to that story? We must have been on hiatus… Great news right? Would they do it? Yes! I had always been skeptical about the ability to just patch up the old bowls and add some new coping, and apparently I was right. They ended up scrapping that plan and instead took “detailed 3 D sonar” scans of the bowls that would allow them to excavate and rebuild as…

The Milwaukee Journal has an article on a documentary in progress about the Turf (AKA Surf N’Turf) skatepark. Much like the Nude Bowl, the Turf just won’t die, and keeps coming back decades after you thought it was gone forever. Opened in late 70’s then shut down and turned into a strip club, then reopened in the 80’s, then shut down again, raised and burried. Then dug up and skated briefly! Then filled in again amidst a community effort to have it saved. It seemed like a pipe dream, but somehow the City of Greenfield ended up buying the land from the department of transportation to save it from becoming offramp. Now, not only will it be dug up and refurbished as it existed, indoors in it’s heyday, it will also be surrounded by a new, modern and public skatepark outside. Stoked to be able to add this to our coverage of The Turf, and anxiously awaiting the premier of “Believe It.” [Photos: L-City of Greenfield. R- Peter DiAntoni]

Two skatepark stickers from roughly the same era. I’m not exactly sure when the “Surf and Turf” became “The Turf” but it wasn’t until it re-openend in the 80’s after being a strip club for a while. (There was a false floor covering the bowls. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sticker for a contest before, other than this Del Mar Skate Ranch sticker from 1981, which as to be somewhat rare.

Not much to add here, except to say, let’s not forget about saving the Turf skatepark. There has been some sort of development regarding the city’s decision to abandon their eminent domain claim on the land. It seems like potentially bad news since the city had planned to donate the land to the cause. I guess this means they won’t own it after all? I don’t know exactly. I wish they’d shed some light on the subject. One thin g I do know, it looks like they will have some fundraising t-shirts soon. Another Here’s funny one though. The local Fox affiliate has a video titled Tony Hawk admits to traveling to Greenfield’s the Turf skatepark., as if he was a presidential candidate who just admitted to some sort of shady dealings.

The Turf may be filled in, but the momentum is not dead. The same station that covered the digging out effort aired an editorial (Ted’s Take) coming down on WDOT bureaucracy. There’s an official web site for the voce of saving the Turf, appropriately named Save the Turf. The Mayor of Greenfield, (It’s technically not Milwaukee, I always forget that.) seems to be cautiously in the corner of the effort. Wisconsin’s DOT seems to be passing the buck. Their stance is that they need the land as a staging area until the off ramp is finished, at which point the land is scheduled to be given to the city of Greenfield. So theoretically, if they cover it with enough rubble so it doesn’t get further damaged, when the project is over they could dig it out again and repair it. Ted’s Take after the jump, or head on over to Save the Turf.

Guess what? It’s Turf week on Skate and Annoy. All Turf, all the time. We have a campaign going to help save Surfin’ Turf/ The Turf skatepark here in Milwaukee, WI. We even went so far as to dig out one of the bowls last night and made it on the 10:00 news. Details about whats going on, a video of the news story, and most importantly what people can do to help save the park are all at beercity.com. More information and the video after the jump. UPDATE: It’s been filled in. I don’t know how this effects the big picture.

Martin Defatte sent in some more pictures from the digging effort at the Turf. These were actually from late Wednesday, but I couldn’t get to processing them until now. Martin said the cops showed up that evening which put a damper on things, but the bright side is, there’s all kinds of positive publicity now, and what could have been just an epic session for a bunch of hard working guys may possibly evolve into a more permanent solution. Please contact the wisco DOT, as they are currently in charge… Here is the phone #: (608) 266-1114 Here is the email: Frank.Busalacchi@dot.wi.gov Take 5 minutes and shoot them a friendly email, note the historical significance as well as the potential tourism dollars. We need your help! I may have left the Midwest for the land of amazing skateparks, it’s my home now with a capital “H” but right now my heart is in WIsconsin. Thanks again to Martin.

Seeing this made me wish I could afford to take the rest of the week off and fly back to be a part of this. Josh Ellis has a bunch of photos up on Wiskate.com that are going to give you a warm fuzzy. So it’s the Shot of the Week here on Skate and Annoy, but all the action is in Wisconsin. Beer City has another installment too.

Midwest skaters over a certain age have a fond spot in their hearts for The Turf skatepark in Milwaukee. Covered once in the 80’s and then uncovered and re-opened only to be shut down again in the 90’s. Filled with dirt, but not destroyed. The Nude bowl has been dug out so many times, why not the Turf? Last year was the 30th anniversary of the Turf. There were rumors about the property being available, but they proved untrue. We used to be able to dream, but now the final death knell has rung. The land that holds the once beloved concrete is being repurposed into a freeway onramp (Curse you I-94!) or possibly-a-park and ride structure for mass transit. Beer City skateboards has some shots of the excavation, and reader Martin Defatte sent in his own shots after the jump. Bonus video section of the Turf From Streets on Fire too.