Colorado Skatepark Map II

Conspiracy Skateboards
Copyright Date: March, 2005
Review Date: 4/29/05

Conspiracy Presents: Colorado Skatepark Map II

Even in this day and age of free resources on the Internet, there is still room for the printed piece. The Colorado Skatepark Map II is a good idea for anyone considering road tripping in Colorado. It’s a folded up map with marking the cities with skateparks, 92 in all. The map legend features icons for an instant visual reference that rates the parks on a 4 point scale. A pirate-themed treasure map means you get ratings ranging from a treasure chest to a deserted Island. What’s more fun than that? (Nothing, with the exception of the Negative Ion beer can rating system.) The map is surrounded on the outside with small, unobtrusive advertisements.

I don’t know that you should plan on throwing away your legitimate map of Colorado, as far as traveling off the main thoroughfares, but thanks to President Roosevelt and Federal Highway Act of 1938, you shouldn’t have any problems making it directly to the cities on the map. The sides of the map also feature a brief description of the park with any important directions or approximate locations. Nowadays it’s usually easy enough to pull into town and ask an innocent bystander. These are public parks after all.

The pirate map theme is fun, but sometimes sacrifices legibility of the map. One side of the map is covered with action photos from various different parks. A better use of space would have been to include the park synopsis on the opposite side so the actual map could be enlarged to show more detail, especially in the congested greater-Denver area. That’s my biggest beef with the map. If you’re not familiar with the area it’s not always easy to tell which city in on which jaggedly drawn highway. Another option would be to replace the cool but not very helpful action photos with small pictures of each individual park. In any case, Conspiracy’s Colorado Skatepark Map II is an invaluable resource to the traveling skater in Colorado. At it’s size and price of $2.99 it’s less exhaustive than some of the fancier guides like the now defunct Skate Park Guide book, but it offers way more bang for your buck. It’s a good idea whose time has come. The small and cheap format makes it easier to update. This map even marks spots that are under construction. It’s not ever going to be as up to date as some of the online resources, but you can’t surf the web in your car.

Going to skate in Colorado? Get one.

Online action:conspiracyboards.com