Real skateboarding pinball – Skateball

The 70’s was a funny time in skateboarding. At times, the industry and the public at large tended to view it almost as a carnival ride or amusement park attraction. Case in point, Skateball. I received a couple old pictures of a Skateball installation at the Olympic Skatepark in Crystal Lake Illinois a few years back when SnA was being updated on a very infrequent basis. Seeing the Radical post reminded me of them, so I dug them up. Fortunately, I was still able to contact Jeff Hottle for some larger scans, and he obliged with a few bonus shots as well. Skateball was basically pinball on a halfpipe, where the skater simulated the ball. It’s one of those things you hear rumors about but don’t quite give them credit unless you actually see it. Five pictures and a little history after the jump.

Skateball at Olympic Skatepark, Crystal Lake Il. Circa 1978-1979

Here’s Jeff’s description of the park and photos.

They show the “scoring” part of the ramp and the sensors on the ramp itself. The shots were taken aprox. Winter 78-79 at the Olympic Skatepark, Crystal Lake, IL. They had a four foot tall version of the Skateball ramp too. This one was 8′ tall I think, maybe to vert, no coping. I never saw these functioning at Olympic, but at Chicago’s Rainbo skatepark they had two of the tall SkateBalls. They had Skateball contests every Saturday, where you would put in your 50 cents and the game would begin. Whoever hit the targets in the shortest time would win. The touch-pads would light up usually from low to high on the ramp. Skaters soon learned the pattern and could easily fakie back and forth knowing exactly when and where the lights would come on. My guess was that by the fall of 78 the contest fizzled out. Rainbo also had a “Rush-Hour” contest every week in their small (4ft tall) bowl/ramp. Skaters had to chase down the guy in front of them in the bowl. The bowl only had one actual corner to it, and was really an “X” criss-cross half-pipe with the one corner in it. It was a blast to ride though.

Check out Jeff’s original skatepark ID from the Olypmic Skatepark. Notice it says “Olympic Skateboard Arena” instead of skatepark. Jeff would like to make a motion to solicit pictures of Rainbo Skatepark in Chicago from the 77-79 era, as he has never seen any. I second that motion. Send ’em in if you have any. Click the pictures below to enlarge.

Jeff Hottle

Mike Marino