I ribbed them about the lack of photos we got from the grand opening of the new Dunedin Florida park, and David Adams replied that they are too busy skating to take pictures. Fair enough. He did, however, take the time to scan and send in this 1979 postcard of the now defunct Clearwater Florida skatepark, which he said was the last park of it’s kind (until Dunedin) in the west central Florida area. (Did you know there’s cement parks in North Port and Sarasota?) The caption reads “GBM in full take off mode! Awwwk Awwwwkk!!” David also mentions that Ed Womble, George McClellan and himself were on the Clearwater Skatepark team back then, and are still skating today. If you take a look at this postcard, your first reaction might be “Yuck!”, but man, wouldn’t it be fun to go back in time and skate one of these sprawling concrete landscapes? I wouldn’t want all my parks to be like this, but you make your own fun, and I see fun written all over the place. If you’re in the mood for something newer, Chuck Dyer has some shots from opening day of Dunedin.
6 comments
Detters
Lytle was not my wife’s name. It was my Mother’s maiden name, the one who wouldn’t let you sleep in the backyard… I can’t even properly pronounce my wife’s maiden name! Anyway, you have a good memory. If my mom was alive, I wonder if she would let you sleep in the backyard now? 😉
Livmo
I think it’s kinda cool how Detters and his wife swapped names… hyphenated-wise.
I’m still bummed his mom wouldn’t let us sleep in his backyard while stopping through at Golf n Fun back in ’84, j/k
Estes
The legend John Dettman-Lytle……wow, No one probablly knows how awesome/great that guy is…….yeah Dettman!
John Dettman-Lytle
Yep, this is the place with the plexiglass extension in the halfpipe where McGill and Gelfand were photographed.
My Carl lived in Clearwater and whenI was 13, living in Wisconsin, we took a vacation down there and my uncle took me to this park for many a sunburn. It was my first skatepark experience and I was riding a home-made board with Sims pure juice wheels and I didn’t know how to pump too good yet. I remember the park was pretty bad if I think about it now, but then it was insane, day or night. Meeting other skaters for the first time was the highlight of my young life… my uncle up in the bleachers, physically rooting for me to keep my speed in the halfpipe, buying my first Skateboarder magazine, the magic was on for me then. No turning back.
Anyway, more recently I partied with Jimmy the Greek and he is probably the most noteworthy local of Clearwater skatepark. Hell, he was probably there the whole time I was as a 7 year old. I think I was the only person he had talked to in a long, long time about Clearwater skatepark. For me, seeing this postcard was a nice shot in the arm. I’ve got a couple of snapshots of me skating it too.
Rich
If memory serves me right, this is the park that Gelfand and McGill skated back in the day. I think Clearwater was their local park. I skated this one and the park in Tampa in the spring of 1978. I remember the Tampa park had a bowl with wood vert extension. Janky but fun.
nweyesk8
clearwater looks killer as fu#k.the big sperm shaped snake run into the donut bowl looks really fun. Gabriel should be something like that.