pump-tracks

The best of pump tracks

I spotted a pump track video online via Michael Brooke’s Facebook feed, but he was tight lipped about it at the time and I forgot ot follow up on it. Progressive Pumptracks makes modular pump tracks from three different materials, wood, steel, and concrete. The wooden ones seem like they would have a short useful […]

Ft. Duchesne, Utah

Spohn Ranch is giving a facelift to a lowlyconcrete slab in Ft. Duchesne, Utah to make a plaza style skatepark for the Ute Indian Tribe. The tribe has 617 people, each human being gets 10.53 square feet of skate able terrain at the end of the deal. You do the math, or look at the […]

The (ARC) Empire Strikes Back

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.

American Pastimes

Amongst skateboarders that have actually been to more than one skatepark, American Ramp Company is easily one of, if not the most hated so-called skatepark companies. They’re basically a playground equipment manufacturer that has done really well for themselves with clueless park districts and municipalities across the country. Well enough that they’ve acquired other companies […]

Dew Tour bowl breakdown

You’re looking at massive portable and reconfigurable concrete bowl made by Spohn Ranch. In much the same way that you’ve seen Tony Hawk’s metal framed vert ramp carted along in pieces to assorted demos and Boom Boom Huck Jams, except it’s concrete, and more complex. It’s a pretty amazing from a technical standpoint, something that […]

Balancing the trade deficit

At long last we’re finally shipping some substandard manufactured goods to China instead of receiving them. The Fanling Vert Ramp in Hong Kong being perpetrated by American Ramp Company. It’s prefab concrete, which I gotta say kind of makes sense to me. I mean, if you’re going to build a concrete vert ramp, prefab might […]

The quality goes… errrr, uh…

I found this video linked from MiamiSkaters.com. Miami skaters just avoided a near disaster with an RFP for a new skatepark that was being railroaded in. There was a mandatory prefab clause and a semi-secret last minute proposal deadline that ruled out all but Spohn Ranch and American Ramp Company. Skateparks bids get rigged all […]

Prefab Concrete in Cuba

Spohn Ranch has put up a detailed video showing the installation of a prefab concrete bowl on the U.S. Millitary base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It’s the first time I’ve seen a prefab concrete installation covered so thoroughly. Regardless of your personal feelings about prefab concrete, it’s really interesting to see it all go down. […]

WWJS?

And it stands for “Who Would Jesus Scam?” I was trying to track down rumor that American Ramp Company (AKA ARC) registered the names of famous skatepark building companies with alternate domains and had them forwarded to americanrampcompany.com. Think grindline.net, dreamlandskateparks.net, newlineskateparks.net, spohnranch.net, californiaskateparks.net and sitedesigngroup.info. I tried these myself and they ended up parked […]