By Kilwag

Every year Shawn organizes a road trip for an extended weekend to skate some place we don't usually make it out to. It's a good thing he does because otherwise we'd never get all the logistics together. Because Shawn lives in his own private hell, he usually ends up taking almost a whole week off. This year he traded private hell for private Idaho. Drive time and work schedule dictated that I only take 3 days off, so I hopped on a plane to Boise after cutting out early from work on Thursday afternoon. One way tickets from Portland to Boise can be bought for as little as $50 if you time it right. A short hour later (versus seven plus hours to drive) I arrived in Boise Idaho. The first thing I did was look for tourist crap. I asked the girl behind the counter if she thought the Spuds magnet accurately portrayed her great state, and the only answer I got was a derisive snort.

Buhl was a short drive down the highway, and home to a relatively new park built by Dreamland. I think it would have taken less than two hours had I not gotten lost near Driggs Idaho where there are roadside dinosaurs and an awesome biker bar named "Angels and Outlaws" (or vice versa. I should have gotten a picture.) I assume it was a biker bar. Who knows. Maybe it was packed with "Fear This!" clowns. I got a call from Shawn and company and it turns out they had already left Buhl after spending the day there, and were heading towards Hailey. Since they were going to have to head through Twin Falls I told them they should check out the small, generic, but fun park there and I would catch up with them.

Buhl has a weird but friendly scene centered around it's small skatepark. There is literally a skate shop built in a guy's back yard that backs up against the skatepark. I started to walk over to check it out and about eight little kids started hollering "It's closed!" No matter, Jason from J's Sk8 Shop walked out his back door and graciously opened it up for me. I repaid him by not buying anything, but at least I didn't try to sell him anything. He even joined me with his wife for a bit of a session. There was a handful of little kids on really beat up boards. Although most of them were not too skilled, they all seemed to be able to roll in in the shallow and a few of them could drop in from the deep end. J's was also home to Biscuit, the official dog mascot of the park. Biscuit was recently returned from being dognapped from the park. it seems a "friend" of the shop owner's kid took it home with him. After keeping him for a couple of weeks the parent's felt guilty when they saw the missing pet signs. Well... guilty enough to call Biscuit's owners and tell them he was safe but would not be returned. Apparently they don't have caller ID in Idaho, cause it took several more weeks until the dog was returned by neighbors at a little league game. Don't steal stuff from people in a small town if you live there.

The Buhl park is small and almost like two different parks attached at the hip. The shallow is most of the square footage, and it funnels via a really tight and short snake run to the cradle area which is huge by comparison and just sort of shows up out of nowhere. Directly opposite the cradle is an equally large quarter pipe. The compact nature of the shallow and steep roll-ins make it almost too fast for it's size, especially when you get to the snake run. I was kind of burnt out from working, flying, and driving so I didn't spend much time there. My colleagues assured me that once you got used to it the shallow was a lot of fun. As usual, the kids seemed mostly interested in fly outs. When I took my camera out they began to pester me to take pictures of tricks they mostly couldn't do, with the exception of some of the youngest ones who seemed to be the best there. Also of note is the skateboard shaped benches complete with trucks and skate stoppers on them to keep them from, well you know, being skated on. I said farewell to Buhl and left for Hailey. I couldn't believe that the crew had blown off skating in Twin Falls. They said they were tired. Boo hoo! They practically had to go out of their way to avoid the park on their way through Twin Falls. I mean spitting distance from their route, seriously. I had been there a few years before so I made haste to meet up in Hailey.

That's Ketchum up above. It's maybe 15 miles from Hailey. More on that later.We camped in Hailey. Somehow Shawn had gotten lost on his way to Hailey from Twin Falls. He called me to tell me he had somehow missed a turn. That's pretty funny because if you look at a map, there are no turns between Twin Falls and Hailey. As I am getting closer to Hailey I get a garbled crackling phone call from Shawn to let me know where everyone is camped. He tells me how the place is out in Deliverance country and I'd better get a paper and pencil while he looked up his odometer readings so he could give me directions, not to mention that he had to drive for miles to get cell phone coverage, so I can't call if I get lost. Uh oh. I had visions of Lewis and Clark and compasses and topographical maps, ending with me sleeping in my cart at the skatepark. It turns out he was just being over analytical. There was only one turn to make, and the road was clearly marked. Shawn had somehow made up another imaginary turn too.

I needed wheels. When we woke up I decided to drive to nearby Ketchum (15 miles or so) to the nearest skate shop. It turns out Obstacle, the local shop in Hailey, had shut down a month or so before. I don't know about market research, but that seems like an odd time considering Summer is usually a busy season for skate shops. I got speed wobbles after rolling in from the full pipe in a past trip, so I brought a larger wheelbase deck. I needed some wheels that were bigger than my current 54's or whatever I was riding and had my heart set on some Bones SPF's in a 60mm or larger size. We had heard from some kids and other sources that the Ketchum park sucked. I managed to talk everyone into skating Ketchum because I figured I wouldn't be able to drag them away from Hailey if we went there first.

So yeah. People are idiots. The Ketchum park is fun. The street area has a nice big banked wall extension with lower coping off to both sides. We enjoyed the hell out of this park, enough to go back a second time. For the most part the park was kind of empty in the day. That may have had a lot to do with the fact that it was half a million degrees out there. Also of note is the renegade tranny on the Jersey barrier just outside the park. Is it still renegade if it is tolerated?

Next page: Hailey and Kuna

 

photo © kilwag