This post was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

So I had the opportunity to spend a nice quiet, romantic getaway with my pregnant wife in Beautiful Palm Springs California. Unfortunately, there was a skatepark there, which ruined everything. Instead of sunset strolls in the dessert oasis, we had sunset photo sessions in abandoned empty pools. What a drag…

But seriously folks… Palm Springs has a bitchin’ skatepark built by Site Design Group, and they did it right. The “street” area has some nice banks, and lots of tranny with some ledges and stairs around the outside. Not exactly a street plaza, but be fun enough for street, bowl, beginners and advanced skaters to all enjoy. The other bowled area varies in depth from around 5ft in the shallow to plenty deep in the deep end and the pocket extension. That’s right, I didn’t do a good job of surveying, but you can look at the pictures. The shallow waterfalls into the deep. Rounded corners everywhere with the exception of one sharp hip. Metal coping except for pool coping complete with tile in the extended pocket. The jewel of the park is a Nude bowl replica, but it seems smaller than it does in my memories. Check out the two photos of the tribute and the original.

Locals? I met a couple, but it seemed like the visitors far outnumbered the locals. In fact there was a contingent visiting all the way from the UK on their annual skate trip in the colonies. They were staying with some guys that they knew via internet magic of Middle Age Shred, which has separate UK and US sites. Most visitors were from closer regions. Apparently I just missed the Cohort Skates crew by a half an hour on either side of their visit, but Chris sent me a couple pics from the day that I was there. Everyone was pretty friendly, and the park was generally less than crowded. And it’s not even summer yet. The heat beat down on me as cloud dwelling Northwesterner, but it wasn’t that bad. There are supposedly three skateshops in town, but Industry seems to be the only one anyone could tell me about.

It costs 5$ a day to skate. You get a wrist band and can enter and exit as often as you want, except if it rains they might not reopen. In Oregon we’re used to sitting out the rains on the off chance that it will dry up again, cause it often does. In Palm Springs, even though it’s arid, once it rains too much to skate, they close it down for the rest of the day. Some kids showed up and got to skate less than five minutes before the park got shut down and they were out 5 bucks. Helmets and full pads are required, but only the helmet rule is enforced with any regularity. You could skate with cutoff socks or nothing for elbow pads, and knee pads, but if the helmet came off the very bored security guard would stop watching his portable TV long enough to amble over and request the helmet. Of course, my experiences only come from a 4 day trial. Your results may vary.

Empty pools?

In the 80’s when I visited I skated a couple empty pools in town with the help of a local. I wasn’t sure if I’d have the drive to figures this out on my own during my short stay, but the very first time I decided to look behind a wall I found one. It was a square pool and pretty much a one hitter, but skating a pool is almost always more fun than not skating a pool, no matter how good it is. I made a few other passive attempts to find pools and spotted another potentially fun ride from the street. Unfortunately, it must have been ridden heavily at one point because someone had gone through the trouble to scar the entire surface with a backhoe, leaving only the tile, coping, and a single tile bearing the pool’s maker. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to make a pool un-rideable. I don’t think it can be resurfaced for swimming, but maybe some of you more experienced pool pirates can provide more background. Although Palm Springs is a destination for the rich and frivolous of L.A. and a bit of an expensive tourist trap at times, there are an awful lot of vacant buildings on the main strip, and more than the usual amount of boarded up homes.

Ditches

There are ditches around town and the surrounding areas. I didn’t check any of them out much besides taking a picture, but there were some piddly streams in them, probably because of recent rains. This is nothing like Arizona or New Mexico, but I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to have some fun with a longboard and a set of soft wheels. Also of note are the “Bank banks” which may have a different name to the locals, but they are banks on a building that is a bank, hence the name. There is an on site security guard, so it’s undoubtedly a bust.

Whoo hoo! Palm Springs! Spring break! Uh yeah. Definitely worth checking out. A very fun park. You could spend a weekend without getting bored, skate wise. I still have some comprehension problems with the pay-to-play issues. For example, you could spend all day on the surrounding basketball, tennis and baseball facilities for free, but for some reason you need to pay a slacking security guard to make sure you wear a portion of your required safety gear. I think the parents in the area tend to think of it as day care, a nice supervised place where you can drop off your kids. I’d be surprised if the guards had even taken a rudimentary first aid class. Come on people, if a city like Louisville KENTUCKY can be progressive about a 24 hour a day unsupervised skate park, certainly California should be able to get it’s act together, for Hosoi’s sake. What? Oh yeah. Go skate Palm Springs! See ya next year.

This post was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

We took a chance on a dicey weather forcast under the guise of telling our significant others that they could go to IKEA while we skated. From I-5 North: Get off on exit 137 Milton / Fife. Immediately ffter you exit, turn left onto 20th stay on the same road for a mile or two to the 5 way intersection and stop light. Take a soft left (Milton Ave Way) uphill. Keep driving, you’ll see it on the right in a couple of miles. Milton is mere minutes north of Tacoma.

This post was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

On the way home from a productive road trip to Orcas Island we stopped by the Ballard Bowl thanks to directions we got from Sleestakers like Rev and Tim and a bunch of other’s whose name I can’t remember. Although we were exhausted, we decided to check it out since the Ballard Bowl sits on the endangered species list. The locals were cool, and not all that local. The session was winding down but I still managed to get a few pics. Last I heard, demolition is scheduled for January 2005. What a waste. Go ride it before it’s too late.

This post was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog because it was too small to pretend it was an actual feature. And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

Road trip to Orcas Island!

Under the guise of going somewhere beautiful over Labor Day weekend, Shawn and I managed to dupe (I mean, suggest to) our significant others that we should go camping out on Orcas Island. Clothing-optional hippie hot tubs aside, we had a great time. Aside from the little kids almost everyone else at the park was from out of town. Some Seattle Sleestakers were there, as well as the Skatepark Guide crew from Socal, a couple of guys from Chicago, more Portlanders like ourselves and mysterious Corvalis Oregon residents with ties to Brand X skateboards. Joining the Skatepark Guide crew was Scum rider and recent Oregon Trifecta winner Benji Galloway as well as his fellow Scum of the board, Josh “Screech” Sandoval.

This post was originally static HTML. It has been backdated and inserted in the blog And yes, this does hurt my OCD! Can you believe I used to have to hand code this? I integrated the blog into this site in July of 2006.

Reedsport Contest and Super Loop Challenge 7/17/04.

The year was 2004. The month was July. The event was Reedsport’s first major contest. Complete with $1000 purse for the first guy to complete the loop. Actually, it was $1030 if you include the money that Steve Grover collected from the cheapskates in the audience. The contest was long but fun. They even took a break for the town parade which must not have been very important because they didn’t even block the whole road for the parade, just one of the lanes. After the contest wast over (Wait, who won?) a bunch of rippers showed up that would logically have done very well had they the desire to compete in organized sports. Team Airspeed Skateparks took home a well deserved shop trophy. Nobody made the loop but Joseph Heffner came amazingly close twice.