Last night was the meeting for comments on a revised Gabriel Park skatepark design. Turnout was weak, about 20-25 actual park users at best, a couple of them being BMX riders. There is an online comment form on the parks web site, but it’s kind of premature to comment on the park unless you were at the meeting. The single render available is not very good for understanding the actual design. At the meeting we saw it rotated and zoomed in, and it’s actually a lot different than this picture would lead you to believe. For instance, from this view it looks like it’s all covered in coping, but it actually only has coping in some spots.
Update: More renders available here. Parks will add them as soon as their schedule permits.
It’s important to note, the double funnel is still a possibility, either as is or in combination with alterations from the second design. Double funnel renders after the jump as well. Please try to think of the big picture when you make your comments.
Street Skaters: A street plaza is planned for the very next project, which is Ed Benedict Park. Please refrain from comments like “This should be a street plaza instead of all this tranny”
Gabriel Park Design Revisions 2
Click to enlarge. Double funnel pics down below.
Double Funnel Design from Original Proposal
61 comments
oldfatjeff
so grab a shovel and come to huntington wv and help me dig Falcon out of the dirt…Remember Blender’s run there in “Footage”?
corncobcock
aaahh! the good old days. skater fag for life
Dick Cancer
Cockcobcorn. Don’t be jealous, it’s alright. The eighties, WHAT??? F the eighties. You’re lucky it’s not the eighties. I had fun in the eighties, skating red curbs, and the bank of gibraltor, 7-eleven curb, K-mart curb, 900 building CURB, and a bus bench. THAT’s street baby and don’t you forget it. I used to get run over, water ballons thrown at me from high speed cars passing as I rode in the F ing street. Take a water ballon to the back from a car going 60 mph and see what that feels like. It almost makes you want to cry. And not to mention the endless
“skate and destroy dude”
“skate hard or die dude”
“skaters suck”
“I’m going to kick your ass skater” I loved the eighties for the most part. I skate and don’t give a phuc. Especially now when I hear
“I grew up”
“you’re too old to skate”
“aren’t you too old to skate?”
“you skate???”
“isn’t that for kids?”
shoey
My vote is for gabriel park being the deepest pit in the N.W. Lets be rational . After these 19 portland will probably not get that many more. Make em count !!!! Make them BIGGER!!! DEEPER!!!!FASTER!!!
corncobcock
your all a bunch of spoiled jaded crybabies…skate what you got, yer fuckin lucky it aint the 80’s
Danimal
Neil, I do skate pool style in pools the thing is that real pools are few and far between in the NW, they come and go. I skate street on a regular basis since its right outside my door and i dont have to drive to get to it. We do need lots of street parks so the new street rats dont blow out my spots.
Pier does have a small bowl and a medium bowl that has lots of flat. I’ve only skated there twice however but that was my perception. I live in a town with a park with lots of flat and mellow small stuff, it gets boring after a while since the challenge it presents is minimal. It is a good beginner park though. I would guess that many people who frequent this website are not beginners at skating and this is why they want what they want. Maybe portland needs a park designed for beginners.
Richard Lien
Hey Bill, yes, of coarse
Dick Cancer
Neil, get your punk ass down to the next skatepark design meeting and put in your one cent in or shut the PHUC up!!!
At the next grand opening, go and tell Mark Scott his park designs suck, go and tell Sage his work sucks, go and tell Mike Swim the same thing. Neil, you don’t have the balls to do such a thing. I don’t know these guys personally but you know I’m pretty thankful they are alive and building and fighting to put in gnarly shite. It’s easy to put in a ollie pad, a curb, and a set of stairs. Sidewalk builders from the corps of engineers can build that lame ass shite. Try building a waterfall and make it butter smooth so when you fall or slide out you don’t rip off half your ass. Think about that you insignificant individual.
Tell me where you can find 19 more parks being built in one town? NOPE you can’t because it’s only happening here. Quit being a little bitch and come on down and talk the talk or walk on BITS. Why don’t you keep looking at stupid magazines that show hand rail, after hand rail, shoe ad, after shoe ad, after shoe ad, after shoe ad ,after shoe ad, and more shoe ads. That to me sucks because it’s a phucking ads, MOST skate mags these days SUCK donkey penis. The skateparks whick is about skating hardly gets any play in the mags. They get park spotting, like a little girl on the rag who spots on her period, they call it spotting. do you know anything NEIL???
Coulter
Skateboarders from the Northwest are more rounded than skateboarders I have seen anywhere else. This is due to the fact that the terrain that they skate is so varied.
I am blown away daily by the kids (by kids I mean sub 20) who completely rip Glenhaven to shreds. Not the street course, not the bowl, but all of Glenhaven. They skate the streets, they skate the street course and they skate the bowls.
Each type of skateboarding helps you with the other varieties. Don’t get me wrong here, in that I agree with Neil that we need to provide some A+ street terrain, and some good mellow stuff to learn on (a.k.a. Battleground street area), but corners and transitions should have a place in all of the parks in my opinion.
I am blown away daily by how well rounded our local skateboarders are, and it’s because we have provided them with a number of different things to skate. That is something that we need to continue. Nothing makes me happier (or feel older) than the kid that does the chest high f.s. air in the Glenhaven mini bowl and then attacks the big rail down the stairs. I saw it happen again yesterday. That is Northwest skateboarding at it’s finest.
[r]
Neil
is it not clear that i want more than just a street plaza? it is great that one is being built and i hope there are some plaza areas in at least a few of the other 19 parks. i want to see some variety. i want to see a some flawless parks. i want some of them to be easier to skate whether they are tranny, street, or x-game style set-ups. is mellow always bad? is flat-bottom uncool? i want the parks to be well thought out and accommodate many skaters and skill levels. do you people really not see flaws in the last few parks that were built?
wouldn’t it be better to learn a bunch of new tricks on some smaller more forgiving tranny and then take some to a real pool? shoot, you could take your new tricks to one of the many pool replicas at the skateparks and then to the real pool. if you skate street in the streets, Danimal, then why not skate pool in the pools. $
Reese
Richard,
Its Bill Reese–I’m an old TriCities Skatepark local. The last time I ran into you was at the Black Flag/Subhumans show (the last reasonable Flag show before the My War years) in Vancouver during the summer of ’82. We skated North Van sometime during that roadtrip. Maybe the time machine has bent the perspective (or maybe too much O’Keefes Extra Old Stock) but you were throwing some seriously big air. Glad to see you’re still around!
DaveV
I’ve skated Poway and although it looks fun it really isnt that great. It was a bunch of broken up lines that didnt really work out with the obligatory vert wall thrown in at the end…most of the dudes there skate it in sections like a mini.
Richard
Reese, what’s your last name? Did we know one another back in the 80’s? I saw your comment about my 7′ plus air back in 82. I’m flattered.. but i honestly don’t think that was me.
Regards
Richard Lien
Danimal
is it not clear that the next park is going to be a street plaza? Guess what Neil, some of us barneys do skate street, and we do it in the streets.
i need a good pool replica to practice in so I can move my skills to real pools.
what are standard obstacles anyway? i forgot to read the skateboarding rulebook i guess.
bobcat
snake runs are only good if there’s lateral room – seylynn is a perfect example of a good snake run. This layout looks pretty cramped and will result in a more ‘back n forth’ halfpipe run rather than a downhill cruise.
don’t worry about the kids/crowds. you should know that all new parks are packed until the next cool new park opens.
Kilwag
Neil, it’s like you didn’t actually read my comment before flying off the handle.
The first two of 19 parks don’t suck. Skaters for Portland Skateparks ( A bunch of old barneys, by the way ) is the group that jumpstarted the whole effort, came up with the idea, pushed for and made the plan happen. A lot of people were really annoyed by the concept of the plan at first (myself included!) because it meant a long delay in getting anything to skate on while they spent months, years technically, assessing everything and having all those meetings and committees and spending part of our precious money on the red tape instead of just building one skatepark. It meant sacrificing immediate gratification for the promise of something better in the long term.
I’m advocating a wider vision for variety in types of terrain. I’m suggesting that people need to step outside their own comfort zone a little. Everyone, not just bowl skaters but street skaters as well. I’m suggesting that we need to think about all kinds of skating. I’m not suggesting that the basic spot for learning tricks should be sacrificed.
Your Barney comment is a low blow and entirely un-constructive. Sure, nobody wants to see that, but do we want to see kids trying and failing the same flip trick variation all day long either? I hope not.
Neil
so are all 19 portland skateparks gonna suck? i was so happy when i first learned that portland was going with a progressive and intelligent plan to build skate “spots” throughout the city, instead of a couple of huge parks. unfortunately, it seems like reason and intelligence are completely absent from skatepark design in the pacific northwest. why are the park builders here so out of touch? jeezus–put your egos and personal wants aside and just pay attention to what kids skate. talk with the younger guys who have been skating for several years. look at skate magazines and videos. hell, some of you barneys could even go street skating for a change and rediscover how great it feels to hit your tail.
the northwest is in dire need of some basic skate “spots” with standard obstacles and clean lines. parks where kids can skate together and learn TRICKS. lots of skaters want to practice tricks at skateparks and then take them to the street. so it makes sense to build smaller and safer versions of what might be found in the street. and how about some more mini-tranny? everyone likes a mini-ramp and they are great to learn on. that mini-bowl at newberg is great.
i hate to break the news, but most skaters aren’t into standing around watching you guys pump, carve, and slash. there are enough sprawling mega-gnar bowls and swimming pool replicas in the northwest. i can’t even believe that airspeed design might possibly be built. double funnel–what? are two dudes gonna hi-five when they pass at 12 o’clock in each funnel? and that holly farm park looks straight wack, even if the design work from dreamland was free. instead of looking at pictures of selynn checkout newlineskateparks.com or better yet go to canada and skate some of their outstanding new parks.
Kilwag
Looks almost the same. Hard to tell comparing a render to a photograph, different aspects and lenses.
I agree, there is no flatground in a snake run, or a lot less than both of these examples.
ethan flake: This park isn’t supposed to be a street park. There is a street plaza planned for the next park.
Ethan’s attitude is indicative of the larger failure in vision that a lot of skaters in Portland seem to be suffering from. To put it it simply, do you really want a system of 19 parks, that although built by different companies will essentially offer the same experience at every location? At best, we’ll get a bunch of street terrain and bowl terrain that blurs into each other. What’s the point of going to different parks if they are have the same terrain, just in different configurations?
Anyway, I’m planning a more long winded (sorry!) version of this editorial. I think it’s something we need to address sooner rather than later.
mo
Look again Mac. That wormhoudt park is even less of a snake run than Geth’s plan. It is more just a series of bowls, not left and right bends. Both of those miss the boat. If you put in a bunch of flat you will not get the snake run effect. All the good snake runs i have ridden have no flat. The plans MC put up look pretty cool. See the link “Hey MC” above. Y’all should send Geth up to Selynn. Take that park, maybe with a little less slope, put a vert bowl with coping at the bottom, maybe some cope on the last bend or two (not the hips, they gotta roll over), and it’s on.
Dick Cancer
It’s 2007, and they are trying to make something NEW. I like snake runs to warm up. There’s nothing in the plans that calls for a street plaza. That will come soon enough. When it does, get you flake ass over to the meeting and put in your two cents.
ethan flake!
this is a ridiculous park…..it will cool for about two months until people decide they are sick of skating a bowl and want to skate some street crud…..i know the park has some rails and a box and i think a three stair? but seriously this street course is gonna be terrible. i mean who even likes to skate old snake runs and bowls?! what year is this 1972!? come on!
Mac
Came across this image/link cruising around the Wormhoudt site:
Link
It’s the Poway, CA park if the copy/paste doesn’t work (I’m blog-challenged). Anyone else reminded of anything?
Fixed – K.ed
Dick Cancer
Out there where gabriel is located, it’s sloping downhill and would make for an AWESOME snake double funnel. BUT let’s get real: parabolic = lame. Reedsport funnel= AWESOME but the other half the park got a shite taken on it. Toledo what the phuc ever, yeah they have stamped concrete. Florence really cool deep innovative area but there’s a whole fricken wall that just drops and is F ing useless that could have been an awesome bank but no it’s just sheer worthlessness. I coiuld probably keep going but they haven’t done that many parks. The Eugene parks Cal young or Behtel they both have quirks (pat quirk), So it’s safe to say they need F ing help to pull off a bad ass, no lame shite park. They are good builders, awesome finish work, but there going to get our input to make what they build something badass.
pra_ggresion
Maybe it does and I just can’t tell from the picture.
pra_ggresion
They should just let Airspeed get creative and make whatever inspires them. that park looks really fun, but I was under the impression that Gabriel park had some bitchin topography they wanted to take advantage of to make something truly inspired.
Dick Cancer
Just my FITTY CENT, we don’t need indoor sissy, drop your kid off day care fecal matter. Fact is, we need covered, pole barn type of structure. Indoor is gay. Covered is the way to go… White is right!
orezona
The more I study the new design, the more I see lines for days.
Sure, there will be fly-outs but seems to me those kids live in every town with a skatepark. This design reminds me heavily of the “snake-ish” part at Newburg. But that’s only about 4-5 feet deep? I’m thinking this will give you mega speed, especially with 7 hips to pump off of. And the vert wall looks totally do-able if you use either roll in as long as you start pretty far back on the deck. Dudes will be hitting that for sure.
I’d say the funnel would probably be better in a larger park…
I know the emphasis of this park isn’t “supposed” to be street, but a funbox would probably be a good addition to the middle of the “recessed” area, with a quarter pipe or bank to get some speed from (on the other side). That ledge is pretty close to the bowl too. I see bailed k-grinds to board rolling in to someone having a bad day when they meet up with said loose board. Perhaps a small “step-up/euro gap” on the big bank would be easy to incorporate as well?
(I went ahead and filled out the comments form, since in a few years I’ll be moving back to Portland anyways)
Mac
For the record, I did post my comments at Parks and Rec., and as long as Rod’s checking this site, I’ll appeal again for an indoor park in the 19. There has to be a derelict city building just begging to be filled with shreddable surfaces, right? It just seems nuts to keep building outdoor parks with it raining here 9 months of the year. An example of what CAN be done indoors at this link. Private, I know, but holy crap! http://www.ryeairfield.com/
I will be visiting on my New England jaunt in August.
Kilwag
Yeah, Rod, really. That’s should do it. I think there are enough skateparks now. You guys can probably stop. Spend the money on disc golf or RC car tracks.
It’s great to have the luxury to complain about what kind of parks we are getting!
Come on people, head on over to parks and tell it where it counts.
Rod
I appreciate everyone’s comments on Gabriel. I hope Randy will offer up your comments to Airspeed so they can get some feedback. The Parks website isn’t getting anything and this is the only place generating any interest.
As for the Holly Farm, that skatepark was planned and designed as we were going through the larger city-wide skatepark siting effort. The Skate Park Leadership Advisory Team, which included representatives from SPS, were made aware of the park design process but no one decided to get involved. Dreamland held a public design meeting at a local school and we had roughly 10-12 there. Dreamland donated their design services to this effort…as they continue to do on a daily basis.
The reason I would hesitate calling this a destination park is that it’s only 2,800 sf. Hence, a quater the size of Glenhaven and Pier…but our first attempt at the skate spot tier.
I’d expect that park to be done by the end of August. I’d also expect that many of you will get in your car and head down to SW Portland to check it out….therefore making it a destination. When Tigards done, you can hit another park and when Gabriel’s done you can hit three within several miles of each other.
Dick Cancer
Look at Purkiss, they only design shite parks, they don’t get dirty. Another fag phuc company is Site design, they hire Grindline to build the damn park…There’s money in just designs. The city doesn’t skate and wants to be able to say we built this new skatepark. Can’t you tell it sucks? Yes, Mr. mayor this is the finest turd in our town. Six months later, why doesn’t anyone go to the shite park we built??? Why are they still out on my front sidewalk???
Kilwag
Do design and build teams ever charge extra for the design? Maybe this shouldn’t count towards the 19 then. It sounds like concessions were made (to make it non-destination) when are we going to get a destination park then?
Conahan
Holly Farm was a unique situation. It is a new park funded by the Portland Parks Foundation. Neighbors were very active in the planning stages of the park. A skatepark was included in the park design but the area set aside for it was small and circular- echoing other design elements in the park. The neighborhood wanted something for the local kids to use rather than a destination skatepark. Dreamland offered to provide a design for free I believe.
I believe the design was presented at one of the community meetings that included Pier Park discussion. It has been rolled into Portland
Mac
Well, since someone changed the subject to Holly Farm, did that design/approval process happen without public input? Not that this is, necessarily, a bad thing (“too many cooks spoil the bowl”?), but you’d think that there would be a design posted at SPS or Dreamland, wouldn’t you? A “roundish bowl with a curved spine” sounds interesting, but it’s a mystery until it takes shape? Intriguing. Will, put your comments in the Portland Parks input area, ok?
Oh, and yes, every park in the system should be distinctly different, but highly functional, not only so that we can skate whatever we want whenever the urge strikes, but because it will spread out the crowds (unless it’s raining, of course, then I may see you all at DoS…Is there even the remotest possibility of a massive indoor park, ala Cherry Hill or Apple? There’s no “extra” city buildings looking for a purpose?). Seems like everyone’s either skating Glenhaven or Battle Ground, judging by the numbers, but bikes take up a lot of space before they ruin your run, so it’s kind of hard to be sure.
As Dick said, I slammed myself pretty hard yesterday on my 2nd run, but when I peeled myself off the concrete and re-positioned my helmet, I reminded myself how fortunate I was to even be in a position to comment on one of Portland’s 19 skateparks, and got on with it. Hmm, what insane park will I skate today? This is what I was dreaming about 30 years ago when I became addicted to this madness. Ok, I’m done now.
sideshow
You all seen this snake run?
More here:
link to park
DaveA
Holly Farm: I was there last Wed.
It is hard to describe. Looks like a roundish
bowl with a curved spine so far.
jf
Does anybody have the Holly Farm design? I agree with Danimal, it’s about variety..
Danimal
Will, how is it that you cant pump a snake run until you pass out? should we stop skating ditches because they dont have coping. its about variety. you should go to the meetings with your well thought out point of view.
Kilwag
With all these parks popping up I need to slam myself to see if I
Dick Cancer
You know they need to bend there designs…Kuna, Idaho YES>>>Aumsville, YES. Bend that @#$%, Tweek it, get the freak on!!!
Dick Cancer
I saw Dreamland moving dirt and laying pipe in TIGARD!!!
Anybody, give a hoot? Oh, who cares it’s just a skatepark. Who cares, it’s just Dreamland building more and more and more parks…
How about that, is Tigard separate from the 19 ??? Good question Dick. Dick, why not tell them about one more. Well, skate fans Dick thinks there’s one more up Dreamlands sleeve……..HOLLYPARK. Due in September. How you skate punks like that…two more DL parks. With all these parks popping up I need to slam myself to see if I’m dreaming.
Smay1O
My main concern is the neighborhood the park is going to be in. Lots of families, lots of little kids, lots of dirt, trash, etc. in the park. Build something that starts small and gets big. That way the “Kids”using it can choose where they’ll congregate. “big kids” in the big area. “Little kids” can paddle around the shallow end. But please make it worthwhile. This whole airspeed award makes me a little nervous.
Will
A snakerun is a poor choice for a modern skatepark design. Snakerun parks of the past allow for a one at a time approach. At Gabriel Park I would imagine a lot of younger kids and bikers that don
Danimal
i don’t like either one, but the funnel thing looks better to me. they should scrap both ideas and recreate the old tijuana park.
“i want another steak burrito”
matt
i like that first park design purely for the pole jam out of the little bowl
a snake run should not be the park. it dosent make sense to build a snake run with stomache surfing kids everywhere and fly outs left and right
lets build some gnarly stuff with pool coping and death boxes
mo
Selynn should not be compared to Derby. Derby’s fun but more like a mini drainage ditch. Selynn is much bigger and faster. You can haul ass at Selynn and you can catch air without gorilla gripping or popping your tail. Chalmers at Selynn is one of the sickest things you will see. There’s some old mags with sick photos of Hosoi etc ripping it back when they had the Vancouver pro vert comp.
vert kook
selynn kicks ass. Here’s the
google map
not a very good image though.
Make a real snake run like Selynn and put a full pipe in it. Make it so you can fly out the bend before the pipe and land on the outside wall ride. Give it a vert bowl at the bottom and its on.
jf
KUNA looks fun as hell.
Reese
Seylynn aka Derby Park of the North…. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen was Richard Lien boosting 7’+ early grabs in the Seylynn deep end in 82. Old school roundlip undervert landing—unbelievable for the day.
alex morris
or insted of a double funnel the snake in to a funnle cradle full pipe