The news of the lawsuit against ARC seemed almost to good to be true, and maybe it is. The American Ramp Company has responded to the lawsuit online, and some of the details are about as sketchy as… well, an ARC ramp setup.
The (ARC) Empire Strikes Back
2-16-2012 by Kilwag modified 11-15-23 - 32 comments
Categories: Skate
Tags: ARC - American Ramp Company, prefab, Spohn Ranch
Categories: Skate
Tags: ARC - American Ramp Company, prefab, Spohn Ranch
2-16-2012 by Kilwag modified 11-15-23 - 32 comments
Categories: Skate
Tags: ARC - American Ramp Company, prefab, Spohn Ranch
32 comments
Nick
Say NOOOO to Spohn Ranch. These guys are a bunch of ass clowns and their skateparks a certifiable SUCK!! They built a turd in my home town. Over priced, retarded design, and just plain boring. These guys are taking skatepark design back to the 90’s. Do yourself a favor and avoid them like the plague. PS. Dear Mr. Spohn, keep your shitty skateparks out of Oregon, we have standards here!!!
nard
Team Pain, Grindline, Evergreen, or Dreamland. They are the real deal, skater owned and operated, the rest is crap.
jimmiejimster
Now I am Confused. Why is Nathan Bemo, the co owner of arc posting links to crappy arc work?
jimmiejimster
Guess it could also be that Nathan Bemo is not really Nathan Bemo.
Odhecaton Z
Wow. This is like McDonalds suing Burger King for claiming they aren’t “health food.”
Um, people — ARC *and* Spohn Ranch are the two worst excuses for so-called “skatepark” designer/construction companies out there!! They both con cities into making pre-fab “McSkate parks” which not only suck, but start crumbling within months. They build glorified playgrounds, not quality facilities which will last for *decades* and appeal to beginners through professional skaters.
There are many wonderful skatepark companies which design and build HIGH-quality parks (Dreamland, Grindline, Team Pain, Site Design, CA Skateparks, Wormhoudt, etc). ARC and Spohn Ranch are NOT among them!! Any city who hires either of those firms is making a gigantic and costly mistake.
This lawsuit just has me laughing and shaking my head.
Admittedly, it’s true that ARC is WAY worse than Spohn. But for every one really good park Spohn has built (and they’ve built a few cool ones), they’ve sold and built countless prefab crap McParks. Prefab concrete parks are somewhat better than prefab steel, but guess what? They both SUCK.
All real skaters should hope that this lawsuit ties up both companies long enough so they can’t make any more prefab McParks for years to come. Although that won’t happen, sadly.
Nathan Bemo
Here’s a ton of some of that “bogus” pre-fab stuff:
http://skateparkwarranty.blogspot.com/
Chad
Here’s a news report from TX where a kid broke his arm at an ARC park “because the coping was all messed up” – which I’m sure is Spohn’s fault somehow:
http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/Poor-Lighting-At-Park-Has-Skaters-Frustrated-111974754.html
Nathan Bemo
indeed – totally baseless lawsuit here
http://youtu.be/DOlwDnYTLys
kevin
what ever it is arc sucks , and anybody who’s skated a real concrete park . knows whats what . look at all the gridline parks and team pain .
who skates ect..
Skatepark Adv
http://espn.go.com/action/skateboarding/story/_/id/7586619/spohn-ranch-skatepark-construction-company-sues-rival-federal-court
“…the [Department of Justice] has decided [the] case has no merit and it is suspending its involvement in the matter”
GGAllin
Somebody works for ARC…
https://skateandannoy.com/2012/02/long-beach-skate-plaza-opening/#comments
GGAllin
Sorry direguard last link. This Skatepark Adv. guy was busted on the slab boards for doing the same thing he is now: http://www.slapmagazine.com/component/option,com_jfusion/Itemid,4/index.php?topic=59711.0
someguyatwork
It doesn’t say that at all. Where are you reading from? In the link that you posted, the DOJ is actually quoted as saying the following: “the DOJ’s ‘decision to decline should not be construed as a statement about the merits of the case. Indeed, the Government retains the right to intervene at a later date upon a showing of good cause.'”
realitybites
That doesn’t appear to be an accurate quote — the article says the opposite?
Skhater
Dear ARC frauds,
Please justify and explain the large amount of evidence collected against you that shows dangerous conditions at you “skateparks”! Tell us how a gapped surface, rust, exposed bolts, sharp edges, and shoddy installation are “great service”! The pictures are just a fraction of the 1400+ steaming turds that you laid down and called “skateparks”
Concretin Nik
What they’d say, “Those complaints and that evidence are actually from users. Users are NOT our customers. Our customers love that we install quickly and our skateparks are as cheap as overpriced monkey bars and swing sets.”
Eric
I’ve been to three spohn parks in MN. They’re are a bit better than other complete shit we have such as True Ride, Skatewave, and ARC because they are at least concrete and usually at least have some smooth flat areas to ride but they are mostly just shitty qp’s, flat bars, and the usual crap just concreted over. In recent years they’ve made some better looking stuff but they’d be the last on anyone’s list to build a concrete park as far as I’m concerned.
Skatepark Adv
I managed to copy the info:
In 2010 Spohn Ranch Skateparks (competitor) filed suit against American Ramp Company (ARC) purportedly on behalf of the US government, 7 state governments, and 65 city government customers.
Facts:
Ash
Link is dead.
Yomommaluvsme
It looks like spohn is playin dirty. Using a phony lawsuit for marketing – classic! I gotta say that is brilliant.
Chad
“Fuck ’em both” is a little too easy, I think.
ARC will tell you that they have installed 1,400+ parks. I’ve never actually seen a Spohn park – have you?
I’ve seen the response to the response, and the lawyer on this explains things pretty well, even if in lawyer speak. Essentially, each city attorney is handling this case, and not the Parks depts.
http://youtu.be/et5C4NMcpQ8
@Killwag – I’m not sure how effective you are at getting traffic from one article to the next, but this doesn’t look like steel ramps to me:
https://skateandannoy.com/2012/02/long-beach-skate-plaza-opening/#comments
kilwag
@Killwag
Chad
mostly that skaters looking at this article don’t have to look very far back to see a recent example of a Spohn park, and it ain’t pre-fab.
kilwag
They have one in The Dalles too.
Tim Laidlaw
Seriously, there’s a jersey barrier cult but ARC stuff is just too dangerous for rhinos to charge? This just gets funnier and funnier to read. Moooooo
DooD
Ah shit, you again. You’re like that old turd-stain that
won’t go away.
Tim Laidlaw
skate and annoy, I’m in the right place, no?
Rich
There are more cows than rhinos. Cows amble along grazing/skating on what they are given while rhinos charge ahead. Don’t be a cow. Rhinos, rise up and either build your own skate spots and/or get active in your community so that you have a voice. Find your inner rhino.
Gnarles Copinghagen
My rhino is charging along at top speed and will have his own little piece of concrete heaven sooner then later!
Sol
Eric, I stand vomiting along with you!
It’s like WalMart versus McDonalds, somehow.
Both providing what can appear as perhaps a decent product. That is, their product is only (hardly) a weak knock off of what is a good and better, or quality product.
Neither of them produce, an exactly any where near, safe and/or, at all, cared for product (especially in comparison to quality products which 10 years down the road still can be safe, unlike within months the danger level rises and then continually continues to rise).
Nor (I’ll assume) are they, that being who is, at the deepest level necessarily in it, what so ever, further than where the money is; or where now, it has taken them.
Heath
If you read the “Jesus” tab it says:
…Imagine yourself standing in a courtroom because you were skating downtown, and this time the city is pressing charges. You are clearly guilty and the fine that you have to pay is $1 million dollars. There is no way you can pay that kind of fine and you are about to go to prison until it can be paid in full. Then imagine the judge, getting down from his chair, taking off his robe, walking over to stand beside you and paying the $1 million fine. Then you watch him walk back over to his chair, put on his robe, and he sits back down and says ” your fine has been paid in full, you are free to go.”
Jesus Judge would then say, “The real criminal here is ARC because the kid would not be skating downtown if there wasn’t a crappy skatepark.”
Eric
Ugh both ARC and Spohn Ranch can suck it-