About four years ago, when I used to have a lot more spare time, I was contacted by a guy in a dark alley who said he had unearthed a vintage skatepark in Pocatello, Idaho. OK that’s not entirely true. We had a mutual acquaintance on the OMA forum. There used to be thread on it over there but it has disappeared, perhaps erased as part of a witness protection plan for the government.
UPDATE: Another 4 years goes by, and we have another update.
The park is on private property near a trailer park, still owned by the son (and former park local) of the man who originally had it built. What’s the name of park? No idea. Anyone? Anyone? The park is on private property near a trailer park, still owned by the son (and former park local) of the man who originally had it built. Adam Crofts is the Idaho semi-local gumshoe who pounded the transitioned pavement to get these pics. The property owner is a swell fella, but he’s worried about liability, which is why he dumped dirt and garbage into the pit. Needles to say, it’s a bust, even if you could scrounge up the 80mm 65a wheels you’d probably need to roll over the rough concrete. It’s about 10 feet at the deepest point. The transitions look severely lumpy and that extension looks like it was grafted on by a third world sex change doctor. Still, it would be fun to give this place a roll. Word on the street is that Thrasher approached the owner a few years back for a video shoot, but balked at the suggested donation.
It’s odd that a skatepark was built in such a small town in Idaho of all places. I’d still like to know what the park’s original name was. So that’s basically it. Skate and Annoy strives to supply you with an endless supply of skatepark construction photos as well as skateparks slowly decomposing. The main batch of photos is about four years old, but the last four were taken in November of 2011. I wasted over a half an hour trying to find it on Google Maps, so I’ve saved you the trouble after the photos. Since Google Maps and WordPress don’t always work well together, here’s the link if it stalls. Enjoy the photos, thanks again to Adam Crofts, and sorry for the four year delay.
View Pocatello Idaho old 70’s skatepark in a larger map
I heard it was called “Chink’s Peak” skatepark, after the mountain that is behind it ( I think the name of the mountain has probably been changed to something more PC in recent years). Opened in 1976 and closed in 1980.
Here’s a link to a video by youtube vlogger / comedian Shaycarl that was filmed the day I took the original pics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05GigKlUwDU
wow..what a shame. It reminds me of Reading. Keystoned! Miss that one. Someone needs to slide the owner some beer and the occasional 20 spot.
If that wasn’t a ‘skatepark’ we’d all be frothing to skate it as ‘natural’ terrain but since it is a skatepark, maybe not?
Newberg is beginning to look like this. Last time I was there, I noticed nature breaking through the flatbottom in the deep end. End times- bros. End times.
The design looks VERY similar to Rainbow Skatepark in Citrus Heights California. It featured similar to-tight-to-ride snake runs and a few deep bowls that were fun.
I think downhill speed freak Henry Hester was the “resident pro.”
I used to own a video with semi-recent footage of that place being skated. It an older gritty pool/park/ramp video, probably pre-DVD. Consolidated, Concussion, Homeslice Productions or something similar. They were digging the plants out with their tails and tripping on how rough it was. The main dude skating had short black hair. Total ripper, but I’m spacing on his name right now.
somewhere there is video of RED and Gideon riding this place. RED inverted the janky punk wall. I think it was around 1999 or so..
Looks like alot of fun to me.
I thought that park in Reading was called magic skatepark.
it was. The B.O.R.S were the ruling locals.
tilc
That place was in a video that Matt Ballard made. Eddie Alioto was skating.
I think the movie was called Living in Darkness. Circa ’98.
I used to live in Blackfoot and always thought that place was an urban legend. We always tried to find it, but local landowners told us it was buried completely. Anyone skate it recently?
I grew up in Idaho, and have been in Oregon for 23 years. I live in Albany and was checking out the shot that my friend Micah took of Andy and searching further saw this footage of the Idaho cement. I have pics of me and my friend Joe Grazter, who know resides in California ripping up vert ramps skating this Idaho park 21 years ago when i was 17. It was fun as hell, i would like to let you check them out. How can i get them to you so you can actually see it skated. It was just cool to see the pics because we skated it whenever we could sneak in. On another note Pocatello has some extremely good skaters, Look up Joe Gratzer for the evidence.
I still skate there all the time… 🙂
not private , but old , 1978 build, in Auckland NZ , got the local council to spend some money to spruce up.
mad as snake run and pipe .
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1274855883921.38523.1605668734&type=3
Your local council gets it!
Nice park! I remember seeing that in some Transworld Oz/NZ tour in the early 2000’s. Looks like a fun ride! Rad that you got them to fix it up a bit.
this is the real old the best!