A comment in yesterday’s post about the Skate-Ball ramps got me thinking about an eBay auction I saw a few years back. The parts for a complete fiberglass skatepark were listed with a $30,000 opening bid, and as I recall, nobody bid the minimum. I saved the images because I thought they were interesting. These were relics of the 70’s rotting away in a desert somewhere, and for some reason I find that stuff fascinating. Someone spent the time and money necessary to make the molds for these giant prefab pieces, and maybe sold a few and then lost a bunch of money. Fiberglass seems like it would be not quite the best surface for a skate park. A little web investigation reveals the park in these pictures was likely Thrasher Land park in Glendale Arizona. At some point in time they tried to incorporate modern street skating elements into the park, and the end result makes Frankenstein look suave. The domain name (thrasherland.com) is parked at a hosting company and the phone number has been reassigned. A web forum reports that the whole facility has recently been razed. It’s amazing that they weren’t demolished in previous decades. So what do you do for the sake of history? Sk8parklist.com appears to be the only skatepark directory with actual pictures of the park, but even then, they barely show the telltale blue ramps. Concrete Disciples has a listing with no pictures. How can you not take pictures of giant prefab blue fiberglass ramps? It’s not like you run across them all the time, or even, ever.
Thrasher Land fiberglass prefab skate park
These are the pics from a failed eBay auction, circa 2004.
OldSchoolSkateboarding.com has a scan from the November 1988 issue of Thrasher that is an article about a contest at Thrasher Land.
Have pieces of Thrasher Land been resurrected? Arizona based AZPX has video on a post called “Thrasherland Lives!” where they appear to be sessioning some sort of blue bowl built in sections, but there are no clues other than the post title.
Anyone else have any Thrasher Land pictures out there? Send them in!
91 comments
Kevin Westenbarger
I used to skate at Trasherland in the late 80
Chris Willems
These pictures and this thread on the blue fiberglass ramps is so much fun for me! When I was 10 years old in 1977 – 1978 we had molds of most ALL of these crammed into
Richie Dagger
Facebook Fyber Ryder site- https://www.facebook.com/fyberryder
Kilwag
Great find! Thanks for posting.
Ryan Taylor
We have the ramp sections for a 30′ wide mini vert (by today’s standards) and built the vert and coping to be exactly 11’H to the flat bottom. Currently building in Southern New England. It won’t be blue though when the project is complete. Thanks for the stories gentlemen!
Bobby Hall
I loved Thrasher Land. I was there a lot. Skate all day for $5.
Bobby Hall
That was back from the early 80’s to late 80’s
J Spears
Loved this place. Far for us back then even living on the Westside. I remember riding the vert ramp and everytime you you hit the coping it raddled badly lol..snake run and thrasher land some of my best memories from the mid 80’s to the early 90’s. The top of the snake run curve was chunked out back then like in the pics.. awesome!!
Stephen Smith
I do have a full page ad of the Newington Great Bay skatepark flyer.
Garrett
I grew up at thrasheland in Glendale, have been ripping on a skateboard most my young and adult life.we have close to 26 skateparks across phoenix most concrete up to 22,000 sqft and bigger, I had more fun at thrasherland then I ever have at any of these 500 hundred thousand dollar concrete parks..fiberglass was very durable and had a really smooth transition and ride, and hurt alot less then concrete does lol. Anyway that pic brings back some of my best childhood memories..
joey
Yea my buddy josh and his dad helped run it. Have not seen Wayne or josh in years. Very good people
Donut
Damn. The Blues Ruled. JOHN Jones’ in Ocean NJ! And Reading, The Dust Bowl, GE Ditch & The Brick Banks was a killer Pa. day!
surfer
probably knew ya. good days
kickstander
Exton was my home ramp and Dustbowl was my daily
The End
So those excursions were from 84 to around 88-89 FWIW
The End
Sky Hooks, man that was some funny business there! LOL, not me…for sure.. So, I went off into the USAF around March of 1981, and didn’t skate again until 1984 or so. Then bailed to California around 1988 or so, I traveled a lot surfing and skating. Cherry Hill was our dream place, then later on, I skated an indoor place near Quakertown and I remember seeing the Team Steam boys skate. Also skated Ocean City Maryland steel ramp, Harrisburg Keystone, and the super nice steel ramp down near Washington DC at the golf course. We had our Blue ramp for a while too. Hit all kinds of ramps up in the Allentown area too. Hell, we went everywhere. Man, great times.
Stick Knocker
Terry,
I have your old ramp, only 8 pieces ( the set-up that was behind video store ), I bought 11 pieces, 3 pieces got sold by me, moved to two kids yards, then cut up with a chain saw by an ignorant father before I could reclaim them…. never got the 12th piece from Dee. 3 of us drove cycles up to load 11 pieces and a carload of friends bailed on us when they saw the job ( ramp was still assembled, 3 of us disassembled and loaded onto flat bed and in the back of a giant dump truck ). Was hell ride home, 2 hours in the dark and freezing in flannel shirts ). Ran a red light in Exton and cop let me go because my hands were shaking so much trying to give him info, trailer had blowout too.
Many more stories involving sessions and moving / setting up in 5 different places . Had great sessions at Spinning Wheels ( Reading ) in Jacksonwald with you and Dee, you guys ruled that place. Remember TJ doing handstands threw the snake run?
The End
I found them! I found the lost blue ramps of Thrasherland! Some are in OK shape, others need work for sure. I have the name and number of the guy who controls their destiny. Frankly, after looking at them, the smaller ramps go vertical rather quickly compared to todays mini ramps. But, the full pipe pieces are intact and that could be turned into a killer halfpipe with some work and coping. I have pics, need to get them to you ASAP. Later TH
kickstander
killer! those ramps ruled. Remember the BORS? brotherhood of Reading skaters? anyway, I’m sure we rolled together somewhere.
The End
Negative, I grew up in Reading Pa, skated and ruled Spinning Wheels in Birdsboro. Cherry Hill came along and I almost didn’t graduate high school because the place was amazing. A few of the locals and Shugo Kubo re-arranged my footing ans style. I actually only skated one Blue Ramp park indoors and I think it was Levitt Town Pa or NJ… Infact, some asshole lost control of his board and drilled me in my left foot and I ended up not skating much at all. That is why you will always see me standing with my board in front of me for protection. Our ramp was located behind a video store in Reading Pa on route 61. It was Snyder Video or something like that. I’ll get pics this weekend. Can’t believe I found another one… Hope it pans out. I will keep you posted.
kickstander
you’re not the “sky hooks” guy are you?
The End
I have located at least two small sections of Thrasherland and several flats. I am going tomorrow to talk to the owner about where the balance of the ramps are and may very well purchase my SECOND set of blue fiberglass ramps and set them up in my yard. No kidding, I got the pics. To have another chance to own and skate history is amazing to me. I need to go dig out my original pics from way back when we had the half pipe. If I can do it again at 52, I will and I’ll just skate EZ.
The End
I was part owner of the one in Reading Pa. I went off on my adventures and my buddy sold it. We had enough to make a 24 ft wide half pipe, but only went 16 ft. I have pics, need to dig them up. Damn ramp was HEAVY to load, we think it was the Levit Town ramp, or Lakewood, can’t remember it was so long ago. Just getting back into skating now after 22 years… wow what a blast. THarner
Kilwag
If you dig up those photos, send ’em in. Editor@ you know where…
Jeff G.
Kilwag, I actually have some video of me and my freinds skating that park, I’ve just been to lazy to digitize it. I remember I held the camera when dropping into the fiberglass run and filmed the whole scary ride. I’ll try to find it and post it up soon,
Jeff
Jody
I own a bunch of these and have since the 80s. They have been ridden by many over the years and now it’s time to pass the torch. They are up for sale to best offer and best home! Have many great memories of BMX and skate times.
john
The park in Ocean City MD was called Rolling Surf
Dubby C
i skated the one in OC, Md. in around ’78 (?). loved that huge wave.
Keith Works
What a fun place. I skated back there in 1988 with my brother. We were used to being able to skate in the summer heat of Florida and when we got out there, boy was that a shocker. The owner of the park looked at us like we were crazy for wanting to skate the park in the 102 degree heat. We skated for about 20 minutes and then had to go immediately to the swimming pool to cool off. Later that night we returned and had a killer session. I had so much fun on the j run. It had a little bit of a slippery powder coat on it that took a little getting used to, but once you were used to it was insane. The park had a fun couple of mini ramps and of course the most enormous full pipe I ever saw in my life. Keep in mind, I was just a grom at the time. All in all, good memories from this park and great hospitality from our friends at Luke Air Force base.
Matt
Oh man. I used to skate ThrasherLand every weekend. I lived about 10 miles away so it was a short trip. $5 to get in. I still have my “Get one free” card they used to clip holes in every time you came. When I was about 13 I rolled down the snake way and some dick wad on a bike stopped in front of me. My face + bike peg = scar I still have. Good times though haha. I loved that place. launching out of the bowl and hitting up the spoon or whatever.
CHUCK TREECE
THE BIG BLUE RAMPS ROCK…
I SKATED THEM ALL THE TIME
THEY MADE SKATING SO MUCH FUN..
SO MANY TRICKS LEARNED ON THOSE RAMPS…
Armin
I searched for the park on google maps. I followed the description on http://www.sk8parklist.com/az_ph_thrash.html and it looks like there’s nothing left but the roll in of the snake run.
BAD LINK REMOVED
Maybe it’s not the right location (I hope so, I don’t want it to be demolished).
Mac
Nothing there but the empty pool by the house, you mean.
Erick
I used to ride that exact same skatepark at an indoor facility in Levittown, PA. It was made from the same molds. I rode mostly that giant curl and the full pipe. The half pipe was always too crowded.
I could get past vert on the full pipe with fakies.
I forget the parks name but it was Something Wave I think.
I bought my board across the street sorta at an outdoor park that never was completed called the “Concrete Curl”.
I saw the Thraserland park as it was next to the NBL BMX Track that held a National in 1998. Thrasherland was a mix of wood and fiberglass, skate heaven for sure.
Mike
Indoor fiber park was “Sports Circus” I’m pretty sure. Across the street by the train station where the Levittown model homes used to be was “Concrete Curl”. After they shut down you could still get in and skate it.
Are you still skating and in the Levittown area? Any pictures of either park?
Erick
Yeah that was it Sports Circus. I actually got my board set up at the Concrete Curl, G&S Warptail II, Tracker Trucks and OJs. I skated the parks a few times usually with my buds Doug and Mark. We were all from Washington Crossing. I gave up Skating in 1978 when I discovered BMX racing. My board sat in my closest in great condition till my dad sold our house and it vanished.
No pictures we all just wanted to ride. Doug was the best of us three, he had his own half pipe. He had Sims and Alva boards, rode Bennett trucks and Kryptonics. Mark had a Sims board with same set up. Mark had his own kick turn ramp I rode once or twice.
Great time to be a kid!
Craig
Ahh, Fyber Ryder in Lakewood, NJ. I skated there every weekend in ’78. And yes, Jeff Jones rocked it! The place stood still when he rode the indoors half-pipe. I know i have some pics around somewhere of me and my new Z-Pig (with every bolt on accesory imaginable), in of course, a Pepsi-helmet — zero protection. I will post when I find them. Great memories…. thx.
jakeandannoy
It was way out there,west of phoenx,in landfills….we used to ditch school and they would let you pick up trash for an hour if you didn’t have the $7, to skate it. One of Az’s first “skateparks” long before any concrete was laid.
Marc
I skated Thrasherland more than a few times in the mid-late 80’s.
I remember having fun on the blue snake run, the ‘wave’ (we called it the half-dish) seemed so huge and scary. The day I pulled a way-tweaked rock and roll on it’s lip I felt like I had defeated the Visigoth Army singlehandedly. That run ended in a tight little keyhole (at the time) that was awesome for styled-out liptricks as there was no deck on the other side and your board and ass were hanging out in the wind. The mini-spine was a ton of fun, too. I wish I had skated it more.
Thanks for posting the pics.
Jay
I used to ride Fiber Ryder in Brick, NJ, about 2 or 3 times a month in 78-79. My friends and I would load up our mopeds with our gear and head out for about a 1 hour drive to skate all day. Other than our homemade half-pipes we would build from materials scavenged from construction sites, it was the only real place we had to ride. I used to love the indoor halfpipe, and the splat-wall the most. It was intense coming off the bowl, hitting the speed bumps as we called them and see how high we could get on the vert at the end that seemed to reach the clouds. The fiberglass was slippery, but we all got some of the real soft and sticky kryptonics wheels to handle the park. Other than Fiber Ryder, we tried to get to Cherry Hill (absolutely rocked), about every other month or so. Too bad they both had to close. My son rides now, and I would love to be able to take him back to some of the places I rode.
kilwag
Looks rad. Pretty fancy for the times. Here it is:
https://skateandannoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/rolling.jpg
Steve DiGirolamo
Just thought you might like a photo of an old Rolling Surf Skateboard Park (in Ocean City, MD)shirt because it was mentioned in the comments. The park looked exactly like the old AZ pictures you have. I skated there (in OC)a couple of times as a kid in around 1977-78, when I purchased this t-shirt that my son is now wearing. Hopefully you can veiw the photo at my Facebook account:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30241828&id=1292534711&comments#/photo.php?pid=30241828&id=1292534711&comments
If not, try looking up FB my name is Steve DiGirolamo, look at the photos under skates. Sorry if you can’t veiw the photos.
Richie Beattie
I used to skate Fyber Ryder in Brick, NJ. Jeff Jones was the local at the park. The place was cool. Slippery and the seems messed you up a bit but you learned to adapt. It had an outdoor and a small indoor section. Outdoors was the Full-Pipe,vert half-pipe, a 4 foot mini-ramp set-up with bowled corners. Indoors was a vert half-pipe and a long mini ramp. I don’t care what you hear about Jeff Jones, he tore that place up.
RPB
Fyber Ryder was in Lakewood, New Jersey
KenZo
yeah i rode thrasherland alot like, 2001-2002. id skate w/ a lot of people at the parks that didnt go to my school but when id skate w/ my friends from school that werent as good as all my other friends, we’d go to thrasher land and skate till 1 AM. it was as if, compared to them skating at the skateparks, we would all have fun and it was a go. You know how ramps are, its the fun stuff for skaters of any skill level.. well, when i was there the mini ramp had a spine. one of the blue quarters was on the small side of the 1/4 so youd do like air to axles on it and come back in. Alex brand once dropped into it and i was amazed.. Thered be a box lying around also, we’d use that as a wallride after riggin it w/ other wood or try and put it somewhere, i remember bikes would put that on the 6 foot ramp too. There was also a skate shop and even an arcade as well. The price was like 3 bucks an hour or 5 to skate all night. The reason why the place shut down was partly because the shop got broken into and everything got jacked. the place was sick, it got resurfaced w/ new masonite every now and then. miss that place
Tricia Gobber
that picture of the bowl is my back yard and yes it is some of Thrasherland- the bowl actually now has a deck around it
oc taco
looks like the olympic luge event. cool
dr. gay panda
piece o’thrasherland
Will
HEll yeah I had 2 blue quarter pipes here in roanoke virginia – moved them to Richmond. Over this past summer the building fell where one qurterpipe was, crushing it to pieces. My friend took the remaining one to gloyester va. Another friend here in roanoke has one. the First time I ever rode these ramps they were up against trailer who everyone was stalling. Super ghetto. Funn tranny.
joe spier
Mac, how cool is that! Someone from back in the day. We used to call Dave Captian Dave. I did get a bunch a free boards and stuff from POWERFLEX, HAMMER SKATEBOARDS, and did some stuff with th PEPSI team. Sponsorsip back then was free stuff, your travel and expenses, maybe a little cash, Not like today where cats are getting PAID! buying houses, cars, and all sorts of things. I’m in Utah still skating, only now I skydive and snowboard too!
Mac
Joe, we skated together a few times. My crew was known as “Elm City” after the town in Maine (Waterville) where we lived. Usually about 5 of us in our blue “team” tee shirts. It was a pretty big deal for us to hit the Newington park. I also remember a guy named Dave, who was a manager right? Also a local named Matt? Anyway, yes, I gave quite a few slides to Randy, who promises repeatedly to scan them and post them… I think there are shots of both Matt and yourself in there. There’s also super-8 film somewhere that a friend of ours shot that I’m trying to hunt down. You doing backside airs off the net pole in the bowl, etc. You still skating? Man, you used to absolutely kill that place. Way ahead of your time. Still in New England?
joe spier
Mac, I used to skate the Newington park. If you have any photos that would be cool. Let Me know. By the way that half pipe had a 4 ft plexiglass extension. I one wheeled it a couple of times and caught my king pin once and landed on my head. Good thing I had my Pro Tec helmet on!
scott scherbon
I know where the Newington blue ramp went, I helped put it back together about 12 years ago in a guys back yard in Rhode Island. I am looking for some pictures.
Stephen Smith
any luck on the pics?
J. Cole
Rolling Surf Skatepark in Ocean City, MD had a very similar setup. Skated there for a few summers around ’77 – 79. Not bad, but the joints in the fiberglass sections could be rough.
Chris
I skated 3 blue fiberglass ramps in the Philadelphia suburbs in the 80s. The first at a Mennonite church near Collegeville. The 2nd was in Pottstown in a field. I don’t know if I ever knew how or why it was there. The third was in Pottstown too, i think. It was connected to some other wooden ramps. i may have pictures and I know I have video of the one in the field.
They may all be the same ramp just moved owners over the years…
Quinten Jarvis
The man you see in the Thrasherland pics ismy dad. He purchased the land in 1983 to build a motocross track. i was bornin 1979 and my older cousins of Phoenix AZ were all skaters. I remember building a ramp in their backyard with Bill Danforth and Jason Jesse. We somehow talked my dad into building a skate park. Before we knew it we had built Arizonas first park including a 10′ vert and a 6′ mini. We even starting stocking decks, trucks, wheels, and so on… Next thing we knew we were holding contests and hosting JFA concerts. I met many pro skaters and tought Tony Mag.’s son how to make the run down the fiberglass snake run you see in the photos. My best memories stem from this skate park located in the middle of BFE. I was there during may shoots from Thrasher Magazine. If you search the archives you will find many cool photos. We proceeded to add the biggest vert in AZ, a 12′ monster called Ocotillo. We then partnered with Matt Hoffman for some freestyle bike contests. I have on video his first attempt ever trying a back flip and landing it.. Pretty cool! Anyway the fiberglass ramps you see we aquired at a government auction. The original owner had them mad and transprted them from state to state to hold skate demos at state fairs. He got in trouble with the government and lost his assets.My dad picked them up at some crazy prices and then added them to our park. Any way just wanted to give you some history and enjoyed telling it.
Q
Erin
Quentin…we were friends WAY back in the 80s. My dad,Bob,used to announce for motocross. I remember there were trampolines there at one point, too. You n I used to hang out when we weren’t watching the races. I always wondered what happened to Thrasherland and, Roger, Cheryl, you, and your sister. Wow! I can’t believe it turned into a skatepark and it seems like a ghost town now. I live in PA and after my dad quit announcing and riding my, it all kinda drifted away. Glad you are able to share your story and keep memories alive!! Hope all is well! I loved Thrasherland!! Grew up at the race track. Motorx junkie most of my younger life…hot guys,haha. There was no better place to go!!
Brian Beard
As a kid, we went to Thrasherland every Thursday night to skateboard and ride motorcross. We would drive an hour each way because it was the only skatepark in AZ! We would beg our parents to take us there everyday, that’s how much fun it was. Those pictures bring back so many memories and how much fun it was to be a kid.
kevin
I used to go to thrasherland back in the day, these pictures bring up some great childhood memories. This was back in the day when there weren’t any “municipal” skateparks. We quit going here when Tower skatepark opened. Thrasherland and Tower were the shiz back in those days. great post!
Mike
We had this blue fiberglass park in Levittown, PA as well back in 1978. It was in “Sports Circus” an old Sears building in the Levittown Shopping Center. A pro from Cali skated there a lot Roy Ritter. We also had “The Concrete Curl” across the parkway that was an outdoor concrete park with bowl and snakerun.
I’ve been looking for pictures of the blue fiberglass for years! Here’s a setup like the one I skated that was in MD.
http://www.poolsnpipes.com/washingtondc.htm
bobcat
Blaize was moving back to Charleston and his truck flipped over on hwy 26. I dont know about the drug thing, sounds like BS
derek krasauskas
I believe Blaize was in a car wreck, but he was also caught up in heavy drugs at the time