Way back in August I texted my friend Mark Conahan to ask him if he’d like to go to a newish skatepark that opened in June that was about a half hour away. Mark instead suggested we go to one that neither of us had been to, a brand new park in Sandy, Oregon that was maybe 45 minutes away. I drive through Sandy on the way to Mt Hood several times a year, and I didn’t even know they had a skatepark. A hurried web search turned up the park district page with exactly one picture showing a close cropped view of a kid skating. It didn’t look too impressive but it did appear the park was finished so I figured why not check it out? Three of us loaded up the car and drove out there. When we pull up we found the the entire thing under construction! There’s no mention of this anywhere on the parks page. In fact the new park is due to open sometime in November (Update: Nov 2nd!) and the page still isn’t updated. We nosed around a little, took some pics, and then decided to check out the town’s local skate shop since we were already out there. The new park looks like it’s going to big and fun, and BDK Boardshop turned out to be quite a surprise!
We pulled up and the whole park was fenced off. We figured maybe this was a second, additional skatepark and maybe the old one was still in town somewhere, but that was not the case. They tore the old one down and built this one on the same land as part of an expanded park. There wasn’t a lot of activity but I did spot a guy getting out of his truck. I spied a skateboard in the back before he closed the door, so I asked who was the crew on this park. He said he didn’t know what I was talking about, but when I pressed with “Come on man, there’s skateboard in your truck, you know what I’m talking about.” he replied that he wasn’t supposed to talk to anyone. Another guy turned out to be more forthcoming, and revealed the park was designed and being built by ARC but the crew was mostly locals. ARC (American Ramp Company), holy cow, that was a blast from the past, with mostly bad memories… I won’t get into their past, but they are still here so maybe cleaned up their act. It’s good to hear the locals are employed. Now that this park is complete and opening in less than a week, these pictures are obsolete, but they’re here for posterity. Included in the complex is a BMX / Mountain Bike pump track which is actually still skateboard-relevant if you’ve seen clips of a guy riding one of these on a skateboard, which is impressive.
The stair set to the left in the above picture probably isn’t intended to be skated on, but probably will be….
Moving on to the local skate shop, BDK Boardshop is right on the main drag. I’ve stared at it a few times while waiting for the traffic light to change, but I had never gone in. The front window has a pile of old 60’s and 70’s skateboards, as well as a sticker for Wally’s Pepper Sauce which you may have seen here. Yes, that is skateboard legend and all around nice guy Tom “Wally” Inouye. One of the first things you might notice inside the shop is the counter, complete with pool tile and coping from Tedder Stone. It’s pretty sweet.
Along the top of the walls in the shop is an impressive display of vintage skateboards from the 70’s and 80’s. Lots of shops have a handful of vintage boards on display, but this collection is really something. I won’t harp on about the details but I will mention I did spot an old Santa Monica Airlines board that I’ve never seen for sale in a magazine or skate shop when it was current, or online for that matter. The first time I saw one was in Time Magazine of all places, in a piece about a hip art show somewhere. It was being sold at $150 (ok details are fuzzy, this was 40+ years ago) which was unheard of for a brand new deck in those days, as the collector’s market was more or less nonexistent. I cut out the pic and used it in an old layout of Skate and Annoy zine back in the 80’s, so it was exciting to see one in person. I’ll dig that up and see if I can find it… Until then, feast your eyes on these beauties. The last one is a pano that is somehow out of focus but it helps give you an idea of how many boards there are on display, and it doesn’t even show all of them.
BDK is a cool shop. Aside from skateboards and clothing, it’s also got a small selection of snowboards (close to the mountain) records, and a few collectables. We met the owner and damnit, I forgot his name, but he’s really friendly guy who moved here from Hawaii.
Included in the new boards for sale is this gem from Heroin Skateboarding, a 13″ wide board called the Mutator, and looks like it was a modern day 8-wheeler, but is drilled for just two trucks.
Alright, that’s it. If you’re driving through Sandy, Oregon, check out the new skatepark and don’t miss BDK’s Board shop, you won’t be disappointed.
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