Who says vert ramps don’t occur naturally in the “street?” (I smell an idea for one of MC’s skatepark terrain comics.) This must be one of those elliptical transitions that were all the rage for about a month in the late 80’s. Actually, back in the 80’s these support structures for the upper level at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (or ORD) were totally skateable, or at least I was never busted there. Unfortunately, I don’t have any actual skate photos of this spot, as I only rode here while waiting to be picked up. I never made a “skate specific” trip to the airport. These pictures are from when I was traveling back to Chicago in 2000, at which point some sort of skate stopper devices had been added, for how long I don’t know. I remember these being as fast as regular U-shaped slides. Do you have any action shots from this spot? Send ’em in!
Can anybody remember who was Mayor of Chicago when O’Hare became skateboard unfriendly?
6 comments
Nate Kipnis
A few guys on my skateboard team (Tom Thumb Skateboards in Evanston) picked up Jay Adams at O’Hare in 1978 when he came to Chicago to ride around and judge a contest at Rainbow Skatepark in Chicago. We rode those supports for about 10 minutes, had some boards fly away and almost hit a few cars, and then were chased away by the cops. I’ll always remember that!
Hell's Gazelles
Dang, the Hell’s Gazelles skated O’Hare all the time day and night in all weather back in the 70’s. You could park on the far ends of the terminal drive, cops would say you had to move if it got busy, but we never got hassled nor hassled anyone. We’d ride those transitions, then freestyle in the basement of the terminal. In winter it was zero out, but we’d be riding those long hallways in comfort and style, we were never asked to leave because we gave respect. Nowadays, the TSA would put the Hell’s Gazelles in a maximum security zoo inside of two seconds. Thanks for the memories, amigo.
Greg K
I skated them a couple times around
XfryarX
Those things have been there at least since 97 . Always looked at them too .
houseofneil
I have a pic of Tory skating these somewhere. Now you’d probably get shot by homeland security or something. . . .
Tony D.
I remember being business travel guy a few years back and not having my skateboard with me thinking about how long I could skate those without getting busted. There’s this girl in Chicago that……