Holly Farm progress 7-18-07

Posted by: MC on July 19th, 2007
Categories: Skate, Skateparks
Tags:

Rich said they are even further along today. Can’t wait. More shots after the jump.

Click that pic above for a better look.

View from the deck above the drop.

Loveseat.

Channel behind the spine.

View from the chute.

35 thoughts on “Holly Farm progress 7-18-07”

Peter on July 19, 2007 - Reply

So fucking cool! This thing is going to be fast!

Dick Cancer on July 19, 2007 - Reply

I’d like to call that “the channel in the bowl” or “the spine in the bowl” but nobody really cares, I just think this is going to be the sickest little park on earth. A lot of FUN packed in a little park.

Neil on July 20, 2007 - Reply

what?? are you guys serious? that looks like the worst bowl yet.

msc on July 20, 2007 - Reply

ya that doesnt look like its going to be any any fun at all. i guess ill have to skate it anyway though when we make our weekend trips up to portland. i dont even really like skateboarding i just feel compelled to do it. maybe they got one o them 12 step programs or better yet 19 step programs. haha

Conahan on July 20, 2007 - Reply

Yeah, it is kind of small and there’s not much vert. Haw haw! That’s not what you meant at all is it Neil?

rocco on July 20, 2007 - Reply

that looks SO FUCKING FUN!!!!

rocco on July 20, 2007 - Reply

when is it supposed to open?

Conahan on July 20, 2007 - Reply

Park dedication is scheduled for September 15 according to the Parks website. Dreamland

Dick Cancer on July 20, 2007 - Reply

Yeah, Neil, skateboarding parks is getting pretty boring. It’s time to come out of the closet and admitt Posing is where it’s at…I have to say the ad of a Rebel owner doing a lame ass, sweeper pose at Wes (RIP) Linn in Concussion, needs a new picture. I saw Marek of (what is that gay compaies name?) Cold War doing a nice smith is a pool. Fresh PHOTO for Cold War. Pose picture for Rebel.

indianajeff on July 20, 2007 - Reply

um , was neil looking for a bowl of cereal ? this park will be alot of high speed fun . its called park skating , not plaza skating.

indycody on July 21, 2007 - Reply

who cares?! skating is skating! why does everyone out here have to bitch and complain about every park that gets built? we act like a bunch of snobby, spoiled, little, brat kids.
back home, we would drive 2 to 4 hours to skate something like this. ive driven to other states to skate parks that are shit, but i had a blast skating them cause i was with good friends and we were away from all the people who make life stagnate. i suggest you stop your belly aching, get some good friends together, hit all the shitty parks you can, and take the time to appreciate what we have out here in the pacific north west! have a great weekend everyone!!!

Neil on July 21, 2007 - Reply

jeezus, dudes. these are community parks being built. they are being built with public money for all skateboarders. they should be evaluated and critiqued and hopefully improved upon. dreamland is not infallible. i honestly see the new parks becoming lame, especially when compared to what the northwest park builders have done in the past and what is currently being built elswhere. i feel compelled to write and maybe motivate others to question what is happening and what is seen as cool for skateparks these days. believe me, i wouldn’t waste my time if i didn’t skate and i didn’t care about skating and skateparks.

as far as these holly farm pictures, i must be totally missing something. do you guys just look at it and pretend you’ll the only one there? what the heck is wrong with straight lines or simplicity? must it always be about the carve?

Kilwag on July 21, 2007 - Reply

So.. should it be just ledges? Mini ramps? All straight lines. Sounds boring. This is a small park that had a predetermined circular footprint. I think carving makes sense in a situation like that, makes the most of the space. I’m glad they are doing something interesting.

marek on July 21, 2007 - Reply

what the hell is wrong with carve and difficultness? does it have to be all boring and straight? and do you suggest not to built parks like donald or lets say, my favourite west linn where you definitely need to be only one riding. and what about pier? how many people can skate pier together?

maybe root of these problems is that eveybody likes to ride something else than other people do and then they try to come up (probably uncousiously) with “reasonable ” reasons why certain types of parks should or shouldnt be built. fro example i dont like pier that much and i will come up with bunch of reasons why it sucks. at the end those are just my problems holly shit farm might not look appealing to somebody else and they will tell you why. so what…

dont skate it if you dont like it. you probably wont see me at pier that often:)

Dick Cancer on July 21, 2007 - Reply

I appreciate every day I am ALIVE. I appreciate every skatepark ever built, even though I don’t understand things like MOLALLA, TUALATIN, SCAPOOSE, ALBANY, KEIZER, CLACKAMETTE or WOODBURN (skated Woodburn last weekend just to appreciate the AWESOME parks elsewhere and had to slam myself to see if I was dreaming, I was in HELL). Salem isn’t the most desirable but I took the time to find it and rolled it. NEIL you might like Woodburn, have you skated it??? It’s up your alley. So is FOREST GROVE and how about Hilsboro’s Reedville, or Beavertons pre fab’s… Neil, you have options. Carving, getting AIR and going fast is FUN for 90% of us. Hitting a ledge, a hand rail or a set of stairs is just one aspect. Neil, if you want to help put you’re money where your mouth is… I looked at HOLLYFARM today (MAREK) and it’s going to be the baddest little spot in town, and closest one to your house. Like jack nickelson said “you can’t handle the pier” that’s right Marek. You better watch out. I know who you little F’ers are and I lurk in the shadows just waiting….

Conahan on July 22, 2007 - Reply

Holly Farm is envisioned as the first of the neighborhood skatespots. The idea is that skaters from the neighborhood will be able to skate or walk or bike down there and have a little session with their friends and neighbors. Since we’re just starting with the system, it will get more traffic than intended. It really isn’t meant to support a big session. One or two skaters at a time will be able to use it.

Once we have 14 little spots all over the city (plus the four district and one giant regional park), little oddbowls like this will fit nicely into the mix.

Non-bowl skaters might want to think about what an equivalent non-bowl spot would be and be ready to articulate that at the meetings developing future parks.

By the way, suggesting that

Kilwag on July 22, 2007 - Reply

I’d wear girl pants if I could still fit into them.

Conahan on July 22, 2007 - Reply

Two guys skating the little clover bowl at Battle Ground today were both wearing form fitting jeans rolled to just below the knee. Trendspotting!

Dick Cancer on July 22, 2007 - Reply

That’s “Capri” style. I don’t like it but who am I? I must be one of those dude that carves and wears normal clothes. WE ALL PUT OUR PANTS ON ONE LEG AT A TIME. Sometime I try to put my pants on by jumping with both feet into my pants. Sometimes I lose my balance but it makes for a good time. I’m not sure how many people do that or if I’m the first but try it. Jump right in and pull on up…

Neil on July 22, 2007 - Reply

mr. dick cancer,
can you read? you clearly don’t put much time into organizing your thoughts or thinking things through. you keep responding to my posts, but you don’t seem to understand what you are responding to. i like all types of skateboarding. i think carving, going fast, and catching air is fun. i am questioning the new parks being built by the major skater-owned companies in the northwest. i don’t understand why the parks are getting harder and harder to skate–harder to catch air or do long and fast tricks. i want to see more small transitions and more mellow transitions and adequate flat-bottom and long flat walls. and yes, i want to see more pyramids, table-tops, euro-gaps, banks, ledges, rails, curb-cuts, manual pads… i want parks where the actual skateboarding stands out, not the concrete. do you really believe that 90% of skaters care about carving and going fast? open your eyes, dick. the few decent street areas are always dangerously crowded with kids trying to learn tricks. there are plenty of gnar bowls and skatepark pools around and yet the skatepark advocates and park builders keep convincing the cities to build more.

i have skated nearly all of the parks you mentioned. i am grateful there are options. does that mean i can’t plead for improvement? for example, i think hillsboro is an outstanding design, but there are serious problems with the construction of the euro-gaps, table-top, and all of the transitions.

Danimal on July 22, 2007 - Reply

I’m sure they make plus size girl pants kilwag.

corncobcock on July 22, 2007 - Reply

said it before…whining, jaded crybabies! dick is the closest to being right. just fucking skate it! nobody can skate it like Hewitt, so what fuckin difference does it make! SKATE EVERYTHING AND ADAPT!

Neil on July 23, 2007 - Reply

yeaaahh-screw skatin’ anything but the gnarrrr. ollies are lame. sesh at the bowl tomorrow and you better roll in the deep. i’ll bring the pabst, you bring the hamms. dude, i can’t wait to tell you about how trashed i got last night.

Kilwag on July 23, 2007 - Reply

I think you have a drinking problem. You should get help.

Honestly, I used to think the same way. It bugged me that all the parks being built were a lot of the time less than straight forward. I groused about it a little bit but skated it because it was there. And then over time, almost without realizing it I became a much more rounded skater because of it. Skating the Northwest’s parks made me a better skater because I learned to adapt. If I hadn’t, I’d still be stagnant in my comfort zone. Embrace it.

Neil on July 23, 2007 - Reply

the northwest bowl scene is what is stagnant. watch a typical session (without hewitt) at any of the new bowls–carve, carve, slash, carve, carve, carve, fronside stink-bug pull away air, carve, carve, slash… why don’t you guys embrace (or even acknowledge) any other aspect of skateboarding? i’ll type it again: the majority of skateboarders don’t care about vert bowls. i’m not saying there shouldn’t be any advanced transition areas, but let’s focus on building stuff for everyone else for awhile. you guys are greedy. step out of your comfort zone. try a backside 180 kickflip up a euro-gap or maybe a frontside bluntslide on a 3 foot quarter pipe.

shoey on July 23, 2007 - Reply

Neil , they have what your looking for !!!! Its somewhere else !!!!Oregon was put on the map with gnarrrrr . Welcome to OREGON !

Conahan on July 23, 2007 - Reply

You forgot frontside-inverts and tuck-knee airs over that Pier Park doorway, cloverleaf grinding carves and backside-smith grinds in the 11.5 and wallriding over the mousehole on the outside, transferring from the bowl to the street. Comfort zone… I think it just takes a little more to get an old man excited you know?

We’re not greedy, we worked for those parks and continue to work for skateboarding. You totally missed the Holly Farm process. That little circular site was totally unsuited to a good street spot, no run up

Neil on July 24, 2007 - Reply

i am complaining and pleading before the fact. aren’t there still many parks yet to be built?

i have done some work. i’ve gone to nearly every public meeting in my town regarding our original skatepark and the addition which is currently being built. i was also president of a non-profit foundation that raised money for the original park. during meetings for the addition, i watched grindline ignore the skaters in the community. grindline designed what they like to build and skate. they of course threw in some over-vert even when nobody at the meetings wanted it, so they could limit who could bid on the project. then i watched them not even bother to bid on the park twice. now dreamland is in the process of building it. when they started, i went down and talked with sage and offered to volunteer if i could have at least some minor input in the park being built in the town where i live. he said his hands were tied by the city and grindline’s plan. he also said he wouldn’t make things smaller or mellower anyway. in th past i have volunteered here and there on a few different bowls and parks. i also worked start to finish on the florence, oregon park and then on a park in indiana with some of that same crew. i’ve put in some time and i’ve mostly been shut down by the macho egos who are running shite. nevertheless, i am going to keep fighting for better parks that are easier to skate.

Conahan on July 24, 2007 - Reply

Now that I know more of the story all I can say is hang in there, Neil. Thanks for being involved and you may eventually get what you want. After several years of work, I did. Now about that big vert ramp…

Dick Cancer on July 24, 2007 - Reply

Well, I bit my fingers and didn’t respond last night, but I do have a sixer of Hams in the fridge. I’ve even went so far as to get off the “pot”. That way my thoughts won’t be so criptic and people can understand what I say.
I can read, and can organize my thoughts when I feel like it. I’m not getting paid to write here and I’m not getting graded, so ease up bra. I have a beer for you if you want. As for getting shut down, that’s not cool but you know how it is when you’re not the boss. I will say, I do agree with you a bit, things are looking the same and there does need to be some fresh ideas put into new parks. I think there’s room to mix up some straight lines with transition, but FLOW means a lot. Cruising with out kicking is a huge plus. (I don’t care for parks like Forest Grove or Reedville that have NO FLOW. It’s kick, kick, trick, kick, kick, kick, maybe a trick and more kicks. That in my opinion is lame, it’s like a stupid pre fab, x-games street course and the x-games SUCKS. I hate seeing guys run with there boards up a ramp, hit a set or rail then run up the ramp and try it again.) The history behind skating was to emulate surfing and that’s what bowls are about. You don’t kick on the surf. Skating has changed but best not forget the history. Skating is also evolving beyond our wildest dreams.
In closing, if you want easier and more street then it’s time to have a sit down and pound it in someones head that we pay for these parks with some of our taxes and they need to build what we want once in a while.

Kilwag on July 24, 2007 - Reply

You’re all fired.

nweyesk8 on July 24, 2007 - Reply

sweet, more time to skate

Conahan on July 24, 2007 - Reply

I was going to have to quit anyway, we

geth on August 9, 2007 - Reply

Neil is an ooolld skater (but not s old as me) who has been ripping for days and has gotten his hands dirtier than most volunteerig on numerous parks, living the true life. He helped dig the butter bowl when we were hauling buckets of dirt out chinese style. He happily dragged them buckets out with no gloves, shredding his hands to the bones! He let me stay at his girlfriends house when we were trying to get the City to not totally fuck up the original park in B-Ham.
I left a pubic hair in his grifriend’s shower! She kicked me and my dog out on the street! Him and Wade worked their asses off on Florence, living in white trash trailer.

That’s the real deal.