New skate park for Steamboat Springs

Team Pain recently broke ground on a new concrete skatepark in Steamboat Springs. They are moving fast, and they have to because they could see snow in October, even at lower elevations. I lived in Steamboat for a couple years in early 90’s. One of my fondest memories was arriving there on Halloween, just in time for a party out in the country somewhere, probably Stagecoach or something. At the party there was a barn with a miniramp. One of the guys skating had shaved his entire body (eyebrows too) and was wearing full bondage gear with a codpiece. Suicide Mike was his name, but that’s a different story. When I lived there the city had a crappy little skatepark consisting of a couple of small mediocre ramps and some crappy street obstacles on a slab of concrete. It was smaller and crappier even than their current setup at Howlesen Hill. Howelsen had a ski jump that some Olympic hopefuls used to practice on. I used to see that thing and ponder hitting it on a snowboard. Of course I had no idea people would skateboard these things one day. Before I get back on track here, Team Pain’s own James Hedrick is getting a model on Conspiracy. Get back on track by checking out the construction pics after the jump. Looks like a beauty. If this park had existed when I lived there, I might never have left.

Looks like they are building phase one right now, which consists of the bowled complex on the left side and some portion of the the street course as well. Phase two is scheduled for summer of 2010, though I don’t know if it’s fully funded yet. Alternate renderings of the skatepark can be found at the Steamboat Skatepark Alliance.