Good Things Happen!

About a year ago my local "skate shop", The Underground, which was an extension of its mother store Ski-market, closed its doors. The store was located in the basement of Ski-market, in what was formerly used as just a dusty old storage facility, hence the name "The Underground". The Shop had limited skate equipment but really made all their income from selling snowboards and BMX bikes. Thankfully the manager and most of the employees were skaters and built a mini ramp in the store. Although at the time my skating legs hadn't returned yet, and the ramp was extremely short with super tight trannys, it was heaven! This was the only "skate park" in all of Boston. And anyone that knows New England weather can appreciate what a huge value an indoor facility held. At the time I had only recently just re-found skating and starting riding this mini ramp on what was the last vert board I road back in the day (about 18 to 20 years ago but who's counting right?). I skated there about a dozen times before it closed its doors. I literally don't even have a photo of the ramp!

This is a link that will show you a few local in a killer session at the Underground:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNr16_2624c

Don't worry the happy ending is coming! My local park is a 15 min drive from my place and while it is very small I cherish every square inch of it. While skating there a month ago a local mentioned that a new skate shop was opening up just down the road from me and that they intended to build a ramp inside the shop. In fear of being disappointed I tried not to let myself get too excited about that. Oh I tried not to, but that was something that was pretty much impossible for me to pull off. So two days ago, after reading a post on facebook that spoke of the opening of Orchard Skate Shop, I attempted to collect myself. As I grabbed my keys, I told myself, "its only going to be a 2ft high little quarter pipe in the corner of the shop that gets sessioned by the owner and he's friends". Eight minutes later, as I walked through the door, my life changed in a very good way. The result was a 5ft high, 14 feet wide mini ramp, with 7 foot transitions, and 10 feet of flat! The first day (monday) I didn't have my camera. Here is some vid from yesterdays session!

Growing up skating mostly vert ramps I never really learned how to board slide on a half pipe. In fact, aside from a handful of small quarter pipes, I never even learned rock'n rolls. The image of Steve Steadham board sliding his way around that backyard pool in the first Bones Brigade video has been fixed in my mind for decades. Needless to say for some time now I've had it on the list of thing I had to learn. Let's just say, while it may not be a bowl, today's session felt pretty damn good!

Google Sketchup 7 - Build Your Own Park!

Ok...I don't know about you but when I was a kid I would spend hours imagining and drawing halfpipes in all my notebooks for school. I stumbled across this free drawing software over the weekend that produced these images. To give you an idea of how easy this thing is to use, I've never used a drawing program in my life! I did watch a few tutorials on you youtube which were super easy to understand. The link below will hook you up. Let's just say that as I started messing around with the program I felt like I was watching Star Wars for the first time. I just kept saying "I can't believe how cool this is?"All I can say is download the the free software, watch a couple short tutorials, and you can draw any skate park you've ever dreamed of!










http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos.html

Hilltop Skate Park, Princeton NJ

For those of us that have skated Hiltop, we know it's a well constructed park designed and built by the Site Design Group. The concrete is smooth and fast. With a variety of different sized banks, boxes, stairs, and ledges, the current footprint (top half of blueprint) of the park is designed with the street skater in mind. The flow course (bottom half of blueprint) has yet to be built, but is a much needed addition to the park's overall variety. The introduction of a flow course will undoubtedly provide the opportunity to raise the abilities of local skaters to a whole new level.


Hilltop Skate Park
400 Bunn Drive
Princeton, New Jersey 08540


Check out the link below to see some Hilltop footage!

www.youtube.com/user/Dimetime123#p/a/u/0/Zde1BFfmYYs