Santa Rita Skatepark - Tuscon Arizona

Santa Rita skatepark in Tuscon AZ

It looks like Tuscon’s new lighted skatepark is almost ready to open. The top shot is from Danimal’s friend Erik and the bottom two are from TusconSkaters.org. It’s funny how you can get an idea of who builds these things just by looking at them. This park has Site Design written all over it. The shot that gave it away for me was this one. Except that conflicts with a story and video in AZStarnet.com. Both Site design and California Skateparks list it in their portfolio. California must be the build contractor. Strange design choice, that keyhole pool. You don’t see too many of those being built now, and for good reason I think. Still, the channel looks fun. Notice that it’s not just a straight roll in for some reason. It’s a $1 million, 12,000 square foot project.

Discussion

25 thoughts on “Santa Rita skatepark in Tuscon AZ

  1. Wow, looking at that shot of the keyhole made my sphincter pucker, and not in a good way…

  2. What the “F” with respect to that key hole roll-in. That’s what happens when there’s not a skater on the build crew. Maybe some of the OMA crew can give us some feedback on this latest AZ addition.

  3. Why did 12,00 feet cost $1,000,000?

  4. sea cliff vert ramp on April 10, 2009 - Reply

    Those roll-ins are like training wheels for Barneys.

  5. The park just opened today! It is SO much fun!

  6. James, report back on how many kids get stuck in the keyhole and need to be helped out. In a hour or so, there’ll just be a big pile of scooters and bikes in there.

  7. Simply Stupid on April 10, 2009 - Reply

    That bowl lacks character. I bet the Mass of piled Lurkers at the bottom would be good target practice. I would be pissed if my $million went to 12,000 square feet. Fucking SDG.

  8. skaterhusseindave on April 10, 2009 - Reply

    That’s a round pool with a roll-in. A good keyhole should have a workable shallow end, this one’s guaranteed to collect children.

  9. Marina Del Rey had a big keyhole with a useless roll-in approach. Once you are in that round bowl, that could be fun if you like the canyon jump.

  10. i just moved away from tucson before they built this… the skaters fought for this park for like 8 years. it’s cool that they finally got a park in a relatively close area to down town. but the design of it seems alittle wonky. it looks alot more challenging than rita ranch… though i always had fun at that park. one thing for sure… that park is pretty sketchy at night… the crazy bum/crackhead ratio is pretty high. actually there was a shooting at the gas station on the corner across the street from that park afew months ago i think like two or three people got killed.

  11. Same old shit designs for AZ parks. Can’t wait till grindline or team pain is able to do a park here.

    From some reason, the same old tiring builders have a monopoly going on in Arizona and we never get to see any new builders.

    There’s nothing wrong with this park and I’m sure that many folks will get endless amounts of hours having fun in it. But for once it would be nice to have a park with a little bit of character to it and incorporate some different elements into the park…not a fucking keyhole…

    We will be going down for a BBQ on the first weekend in May. I will post up more pictures.

  12. Mexicansbuildingparks on April 14, 2009 - Reply

    Yep, looks like the same crew of (Ed Bennedict) non-skating Mexicans building; the same radius through out the whole park designed by some kid on a computer… For the love of skateparks USE your imagination a little when building one of these things. I will skate it the next time I’m down visiting. Plitedesign.

    1. Slappy on July 14, 2010 - Reply

      It would have been appropriate to say non-skaters, however, you felt it was ok to call out a particular group of minorities to justify your racist mindset. Skateboarding doesn’t need douche bags like you rolling around. Walk into traffic please.

  13. looks like a mix of 3 different parks we already have in this state. this will continue to happen until the skateboarders start voicing their opinions/concerns. i hear plenty of people standing around and complaining about the parks but very few will actually voice it to the people paying for them and the people designing them.

    at least grindline finally came in and did a bowl at desert west, it’s the best thing we have in the state (except maybe tuba city – which i haven’t been to yet – but again…grindline!).

    if you see the owners and managers houses and oversized tonka trucks, you will understand why it cost $1,000,000 to build a 12,000 sq ft. park.

  14. stick em' up on April 14, 2009 - Reply

    that truck is fucking retarded. almost as bad as rebuilding the same cookiecrap everywhere.. way to go pino! F for creativity… c.a. just continues to rob municipalites and skateboarders nationwide.

  15. The BMX community is organizing a peaceful protest of the new Santa Rita Skate Park during its opening ceremony this Saturday at 10:00 am.

    In addition to the now hundreds of BMX supporters planning to attend the protest, we are prepared to use whatever legal means are necessary to achieve fair treatment for BMX riders.

    This issue has been brought to the attention of Parks and Rec and City of Tucson before and during construction. During the initial process of this project there was ample opportunity and resources(funding) available to design this park for multiple use purposes. The City chose not to for whatever reasons. They have also chose to ignore the voices of the BMX public.

  16. Awesome. Now take this quarter and go call a web site that cares…

  17. Simply Stupid on April 23, 2009 - Reply

    Maybe the BMX Public should have helped with fund raising and gone to the meetings when the park was being proposed. Bitching about how lazy you are now will not get you into the SKATEpark. Maybe you could raise money for a BIKEpark, we wouldn’t hold it against you.

  18. Do you believe
    In heaven above
    Do you believe
    In Love?

    /you know have ‘send me an angel’ stuck in your heads.

    RAD!

    //just like the movie

  19. michael on April 23, 2009 - Reply

    better than a ric rolling

  20. you just got RADrolled

  21. taton dorfman on September 30, 2010 - Reply

    trust me the key hole at santa rita is wicked sick to skate!

  22. taton dorfman on September 30, 2010 - Reply

    all we need for that skate park now is a street spot next to it! just hope fully that doesnt cost 1 million dollars to

    tuscon need spots like this its epic!

  23. santa regretta on November 29, 2010 - Reply

    give skaters $1,000,000.00 and they will know what to do. this design is a huge letdown. this park should be re-named snake city. there is an excess of useless flat ground. crackheads steal copper out of the lights and it takes four months to be repaired. tucson got ripped the hell off. the street section is the easiest part to build and it will never get built. the funnest part of the park is it’s smallest feature. tucson could have built a bridge with that money and everyone could be so much more satisfied than they are now.

    this is probably the most boring cement park in the entire state.

  24. Old Timer on November 14, 2011 - Reply

    I can’t believe all the complaining I see on here. I would have given my left arm to have a park like this to skate 20 years ago instead of getting chased off by the cops everywhere. I like going to this park and the kidney pool is a blast. You should be thankful that this free-to-skate park was built.

    OMA Recruit

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