Skate and Annoy Scene Reports
Where: Wichita Kansas
Submitted by: Eugene & Stacey Lardizabal
Report Date: 11-19-04
This post from our short-lived series of Scene Reports was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.
Editor’s note: I had to badger Eugene to write this. So much so that his wife got tired of hearing about and pretty much wrote it for him after taking notes. – k.ed
Skating in the Land of Oz
Ahhh Kansas….The land of wheat, sunflowers, and tornadoes. The place where the highest peak, called Mt Sunflower, registers a mere 10 feet vertical. Because of its flat nature, it seems that skaters here have an inane fear of heights. We were stoked when we first heard that Hutchinson, a small town 40 minutes north of Wichita, had a vert ramp. We scoured the town stoked that such a thing could exist in the middle of bumfuck America. It didn’t. The ramp was umm… “Mini” at best. Alas, the definition of “vert” here extends to anything over four feet tall and this one was maybe five feet.
Luckily, soon after that we found out the local skate shop (Rip City Skates) was building a ramp of their very own in the back lot of their building. Everyone pitched in with supplies and construction and the ramp was completed just in time for Labor Day weekend. It measured out at 11 ft high and 16 ft wide. This was the biggest ramp around in over 12 years and everyone was pumped on getting to skate it. There were some rad sessions and a lot more vert shredders here than I expected (B.K., Darren, Matt, Randy-not you you idiot!, Ant, Eric B.) for about a month, until the landlord of the building found a bunch of skaters hanging out on the roof (which doubled as the platform on one side of the ramp) and freaked over liability issues. Darren, Rip City Skates’ owner, was given a choice: either tear down the ramp or face eviction. He closed down the ramp. It’s supposed to be erected again in B.K.’s backyard but now that the rain and cold has started up here it looks like there won’t be any serious ramp skating until the spring.
The local YMCA has a kiddie skate park with a bunch of lame street obstacles and a bowl, but the bowl is not very smooth and way too mellow – the deep end barely goes to vert. We also checked out Edmond Skatepark, a concrete park built by Team Payne and located just outside Oklahoma City. It was OK for just carving around in but the shallow was also too mellow for any experienced skater to be happy with, and is certainly a far cry from Newberg, Aumsville, West Linn, etc., etc. It seems I may have to make the trek to Denver to skate the Denver City Skatepark and the X-games Park. Hey, it’s only eight hours away! Meanwhile my new pads and board are collecting dust in the garage. Skaters of Oregon beware: don’t fool yourselves into thinking skate spots like you have are everywhere – they’re not. You just don’t know how lucky you are until it’s gone…
Reporter: Eugene Lardizabal; Coldwar Vert Skater
Skates: Mostly Vert
Started: 1986
Reporter: Stacey Jenkins; Journalist, filmmaker, partner-in-crime.
Skate and Annoy Scene Report
Straight from the horse’s mouth. What we’re looking for is a Maximum Rock and Roll type of thing. You should send yours in, because the world wants to now how that curb is in front of your house.
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