Skateboard slaat aan in Vlissingen – Skateboarding is catching on in Vlissingen, according to the December 4th, 1980 edition of the Dutch newspaper Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant. Check out the photo of that skatepark. Even though it’s low res black and white newspaper photo, it’s clearly one of those fiberglass ramps that was part of the Skate Ball system, and possibly the same blue fiberglass ramps used in Thrasherland. It’s hard to know for sure, could there have been more than one manufacturer of blue fiberglass skateboard ramps? There are similarities and differences between the two if you compare, but it’s conceivable that there were a few minor iterations over the product lifespan that would account for that. This is the only photograph I’ve seen showing the incline, full pipe parts (only half here) and the Skate Ball ramp. I’m just shocked that some of them made it all the way over to Europe.
The article comes courtesy of S&A reader Jeroen who rode this thing in the Netherlands. His crew actually found abandoned parts of the park and reassembled them in their own configuration and rode them in 1985.
3 comments
Jeroen
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2jxrsusa8qo0yn/leiden%20rage%20uitgewoed%20.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6dcpvnx94bgotpq/AAAW1u4o-3qAsBd8Rh7HBu21a?dl=0
I found more..
The article is about how the hype went as quick as it came.
And the pics are Arthur’s .. He skated the park sat its first base in Leiden in 1978. As the hype was over in Leiden the ramps went to Vlissingen where the never got reassembled until we did I guess.. There were more of those parks in the Netherlands. I’ve got footy of one indoors in Almelo and heard of one in Amsterdam and one in Antwerp Belgium. I will post the videoclip later this week.
surfer
El Gato Classic! please beam me there. Work sucks
talentlessquitter
Awesome!