Missoula Montana

Missoula Montana has a 16,000 square foot skatepark completed by Grindline in 2006. I saw video of this either on Fuel TV or Tony Hawk’s Skatepark Tour. I thought it was going to be huge. It’s pretty good sized, but not nearly as mammoth as it looked on TV. I think it’s pretty safe to say that any skatepark is going to appear smaller in real life, but I haven’t been to Lake Cunningham yet.)

Here’s a couple of panoramas to start you off with.

The main street area, the part that seems to get used the most.

MissoulaSkatepark.org gets good “press.” I need to figure out how to get Skate and Annoy immortalized in concrete.

Hats off to the city planners in Missoula who did not succumb to “sports complex” fever by sticking this way out in the middle of nowhere. It’s right off the main drag, and right next to the river if you need to cool off. I can’t completely knock the sports complex though. This was a family vacation after all, and we did end up hitting the best public pool ever, otherwise known as Splash Montana. Great water slides, a lazy inner tube river, lots of small spraying things for the tykes. Adult non-resident admission was only $5.75.

Another park overview shot.

These banks look fun, I wonder what you could use them for?

Something like this, maybe? This guy’s name is Dutchie. I was hoping to stoke a local by posting his picture on Skate and Annoy, but it turns out he’s actually from Portland. Dutchie rides for Original.

Here’s a shot of the single bowl. You can’t see the steps, but they are pretty big. There’s a good sized waterfall there and the shallow is mellow, but not nearly as mellow as St Ignatius.

The middle bowl starts off mini sized and gradually ends up pretty deep. The cradle actually has a little dip in it.

Another shot of Dutchie.