Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Chris Hildebrand has designed concrete skateparks built around the world. For skaters who have travelled the country on skate tours, their top ten favorite parks lists don’t include parks designed by Chris. Their lists are made of Chris’s skateparks. Think Orcas Island, Trinidad, Carbondale, Bainbridge Island, West Linn, Milton, and the Ballard Bowl. Yes, many, many hours of driving seperate 78704 from a Hildebrand creation, but not for long. Austin and Corpus Christi have already contracted Chris to design skateparks which should both be completed in 2005. It’s looking like San Marcos and Lockhart might also do right by their skating communities and bring Chris onto their projects.

Hildebrand was in Austin for a few days consulting on the design of our public skatepark with the city’s Parks and Recreation officials. He gave them a presentation wearing jeans with holes in the knees, a Vans t-shirt and Vans shoes. The Parks and Recreation people were wearing button-down shirts and ties. His presentation featured pictures and videos of their projects and construction techniques. Everyone there was really impressed. I think they were also excited to have done something right and see our reactions.

So the next day I brought Chris to the Banana Farm for an afternoon session before he had to catch a plane back to Washington. I was curious to get his impressions about this ramp which has been described by several of my friends as their favorite skate spot. What would a professional skatepark designer think of this insane plywood creation? The following interview was conducted by me during and after our two-hour session at the ramp. Unfortunately, I lent my camera to my girlfriend and wasn’t able to take any photos of Chris ripping. Use your imagination.

So, what do you think of the Banana Farm Ramp?

This place is sick and second only to Skatopia as far as backyard skate shit that I’ve seen.

What are your favorite aspects of the ramp?

Uhhh.. The coping is perfect. It’s sick because the trannies are different on every wall. It’s got a bunch of unique hips. Multiple hips. 50-degree hips. 90-degree hips. Extensions all over the place. It’s epic. Super solid. Really well-built. It doesn’t move at all when you skate it. I don’t know. It’s fun. It’s got some bigger stuff that’s a little scary but most of it’s pretty mellow so it’s just fun times. You know, whether you’re skating hard or just fucking around, this place is probably a blast.

What do you think of the assortment of things integrated into this ramp?

It’s not too tight or crammed in, either. There’s plenty of flat so it’s not crammed. It’s really sick, too, with all these transfers with quarter pipes up on the decks. Those are really cool. It’s the kind of thing you put them on as an afterthought and put them where they fit. It’s cool. I like it.

What do you think the impact is going to be on backyard ramp building now that the cost of wood has risen so much? Are people going to more seriously consider backyard bowls over ramps?

Yeah, backyard concrete is coming up in a big way. There’s a lot more people talking about it than doing it. But there’s a lot more people doing it than there was before. More than ever before. Nah, I don’t think backyard ramps are going away. I think there’s going to be a revival– a rennaisance, actually. Because even though the wood is expensive, it’s still so worth it. It’s accessible. Anyone can mess with it. And you can do something small and add onto it. I don’t know. Most skaters rent so they can’t build permanent things. It’s getting harder to build these wooden ramps, but I don’t think they’re going away at all.

Tell me more about your thoughts after having skated the Banana Farm.

It’s epic. It’s great. I don’t know. Those aren’t very creative words to describe something that amazingly creative. You know what I really like about it? Like a lot of my favorite spots like Washington Street in San Diego have the feeling of like hand crafted, you know, loveliness. Like every square inch was built with care and artistry. Craftsmanship, basically. The whole place hums with the work that was put into it. When something is built by a really good, passionate, builder, like a building or anything, you can tell every square inch vibrates with something and that’s what that’s got. Obviously it was made piecemeal with a lot of different people probably arguing with each other about what should go where. And you can tell that probably sometimes some guys got their way and other dudes got their way at different things. There’s some weird shit in there. There’s some stuff that’s kind of questionable. But you know, that’s cool. There’s some stuff that’s really hard in there. There’s some gnarly transfers and there’s some really easy ones. I love that fifty-degree hip. It’s got that escalating corner right after a fifty-degree hip. That’s really cool. I love it. That crazy sunken-in over-vert pocket is really epic. That’s actually the same thing we designed for Corpus Christi- we’re going to make a concrete one like that with hips on the sides and sunken in the corner and over-vert on a 90-degree spot.

What do you think about that coping?

The coping is the best part about the park, probably. The coping is perfect. Awesome. Super chunky, you know. Fast. You know, it’s fast, but not too fast. It’s perfect coping. You can’t really relax with it, either. Everytime you stop paying attention, you’ll stick on a grind. You gotta grind it for real everytime, but it grinds good.

If you were going to add anything, what would you expand it with?

Bowl off that one mini-ramp side. The crossed ramps side– bowl that thing off. That’s what I would do. If that thing were more complete, and going off.. People don’t obviously skate that side very much because it’s not as good as the other part. But if that were bowled off and made to be its own good thing, that would be real epic. Then two people could skate it at once.

I really like that you have those transfers up onto the decks and shit. I wish I would have fucked with that a little bit more. I didn’t even try it. But that looked like a lot of fun. And I love that stuff where you can ollie out of something into another bank up on the deck.

We were driving on Lamar and some interesting banks to curbs caught Chris’s attention.

There’s a lot of good skateable shit streetwise I’ve been noticing in Austin. There’s banks everywhere. All this concrete shit that was build in the seventies and eighties. Looks like a lot of good, natural terrain.

POSTSCRIPT: As we were driving from the Banana Farm Ramp back to my house, a lunatic driver ran a stop sign and nearly collided with Chris’s rental car. Here is an audio clip documenting the dramatic moment.

Skateboarders in Austin have flat-out been getting ripped off by Southwestern Bell Corporation for years. Basic phone service costs about ten bucks, but before long distance is added up, all these additional charges are slipped in and by the time you get to the bottom of the page, the bill is $40 with some more coming along to cover all those prank calls to Mike McGill in California.

One of the most egregious telco ripoffs is Soutwestern Bell’s inLine Plus ’service’. SBC describes this $4.95 a month charge as an insurance policy that will protect the consumer from costly repairs by the phone company if the telephone wiring inside your house goes bad. This is absolutely unnecessary if the subscriber is renting their house or apartment as the landlord is responsible for these types of repairs. When I moved to Austin and ordered new phone service at a house I was renting, I told the SBC agent I didn’t want inLine Plus, yet she added it to my roster of ’services’. A year later I noticed I was being charged for it each month. I called, complained, and got all my money refunded on it.

Suffice it to say, I have wanted to escape Southwestern Bell’s monopoly for some time. My cellphone doesn’t work inside my house, so that hasn’t been a good alternative to a traditional landline. Finally, I decided to take the leap and try an emerging competitor to the telcos- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). The provider I chose is Vonage, which offers a flat fee of $24.95 per month for unlimited local and long distance calling. Bundled features include voicemail, caller ID, star 69, and call waiting. The voicemail also supports the option of having your messages emailed to you as an attached audio file or browseable on their website.

The process was simple. I ordered the service on their website using my credit card. They mailed me a small box that I connected to my home network. Then I ran a phone wire from the box to a nearby telephone. I also forwarded some ports on my router to the box’s IP address. Simple enough. I picked up the phone and it was ready to go with a dialtone just like my traditional phone service.

I’ve been using it for a few days now. Vonage is in the process of moving my pre-existing phone number over to their service. So far, it’s been terrific. Calls are as clear as what I’ve expected from landline phones. I was so fed up with SBC ripping me off, though, I was ready to accept morse code as an alternative.

Already the major telcos are feeling the heat of actual competition and are screaming to the FCC to intervene to protect their monopolies. FCC chairman Michael Powell (son of Secretary of State Colin Powell– yeah, he got the job because of his dad. Sort of like another guy in the federal government whose name sounds like George Bush) has just announced this week that he would like to expand the oversight of the FCC to regulate VOIP. The next time someone tells you the Republican party is in favor of small government and letting the market and competition regulate itself, ask them why the Bush administration wants the FCC to broaden its powers in this direction.

NOTE- VOIP is really only a valid service if you have a broadband internet connection. It’s also a good justification for getting a broadband internet connection.

Here’s a link to Vonage’s site for more information. Following that link also offers the visitor a free month of service if they sign up.

This past Saturday, Mike Kelly, Ron, and Travis held a ramp jam at the Banana Farm Ramp that was very much in the spirit of famed Texas skate gatherings of years past. Bands travelled to play for free in the backyard and lonestar beer flowed from four or five kegs throughout the day and evening.

I didn’t show up until after 4:00 pm, so I probably missed a lot of the skating. It was cool seeing out-of-towners like Chris, Fields, and Carter from San Antonio shred. Local Austinites including Brian Anderson, Peyton, Adam, Ryan, Sewing Machine, Bobby, Cecil, and others skated well into the evening.

Stephen Boban was pretty stoked. He’s just expanded his team with an astonishing lineup of riders. To the best of what I can remember, Southern Star now boasts the following staff members: Peyton, Brian A., Jon Erik, Andy Mack, both Bobans (!), Adam Young, and Jimmy Finley.

DJ Kessler spun discs when the bands weren’t playing. In an unbelievable medley, Steve mixed the following songs back-to-back while people skated: Jesus Entering from the Rear (Feeders), High Energy Blast (999), and some song by 45 Grave. Keen observers will remember the 999 song from Lance Mountains contest run @ Uplands in the Bones Brigade Video Show. The 45 Grave song was the one playing during one of Gator’s runs at the Terror at Tahoe contest.

Altogether, this was a phenomenal event. If you were in Austin and didn’t go, sadly, you really missed out on a great time. Fortunately, a similar event is scheduled for this coming weekend in San Antonio. Brett has provided me with the following details (in his words):

There were some questions about TOSSJ 4 at the BFR Jam Saturday and some folks wanted the info posted here so here are Carter’s two major post on the event.”If you are taking 35 south to SA stay on the highway and take 35 through the city. Go past downtown and keep heading South. About five minutes past downtown you will exit Southcross off 35. Take the turn around and stay on the access road, get in the right lane and take a right on Stonewall. The address is 618 Stonewall, brown house, big mail that says “Dirty Boys”.
If heading from Houston take I-10 through the city to 35. head south on 35 and Southcross is right there. �

“OK. Here is the plan. I talked with Brete yesterday and we figured some things out. This TOSSJ will be a fundraiser for more crete at LBJ. T-shirt sales and hotdog/hamburger proceeds will go towards crete. Some of this $$$ will also be givin to the owner for letting us throw the shindig there. He has not asked for anything, but it will help pay his electric bill. Plus this guy basically let us build a skatepark in his backyard. Pretty fuckin cool.

The bands are gonna have to play early as to not disturb the neighbors. At least by 7-8pm I think is what we agreed too.

A few people have asked if they could camp back there. Ill ask permission today.

We are going to try to keep cars off the street. We will be able to park on the neighbors property next door. They have a big field. We have done this before and were able to avoid a visit from the police. Plus we can keep the session going later.

There is also a hotel right down the street off Division and 35. I think it’s a Holiday Inn.

We hope everybody can show up. The session should start in the afternoon on into the night. Oby may even drive down from Arkansas. It will be killer! �

Also Charlie (the guys whose yard the ramp is in) asked we not show up before noon. Also I can not emphasize how much fun this ramp is. Be there or use pink grip tape till next year.

This is an old photo of the afformentioned ramp. Both ends are now bowled in. This end is bowled in with complete over vert. More photos here.

Click the above photos to see the Banana Farm Gallery.

Click here to visit Carter’s gallery of photos from this jam on his website.

This saturday looks to be a busy day within the Austin skate scene. Camp Fig is hosting an opening for a new show called "Truffle Shuffle". Check out their site for details. It begins at 7:00 and runs to 11:00 or so.

But much earlier than that, perhaps starting at 8:00 am, I’m hosting a garage sale. Lots of antique crap. Maybe even some pretty new stuff. Super cheap prices. 4908 Duval– one block south of the Flightpath coffee shop.

Party Travis is hosting a ramp jam at the Banana Farm on Saturday as well. Entrance fee is $5.00. Several bands are playing, there will be skateboarding, and I’m considering running my video projector. I’ve come into some unique digital content as of late that I might screen. There will probably also be massive beer consumption and some amount of barbecue.

Todd Falcon now has two bands. Both will be performing in Houston Saturday afternoon. Todd wants everyone to know that a board will be thrown at the event and his signature model will be on sale for $20 there. Here are the details–

EVENT: WESTHEIMER STREET FESTIVAL
LOCATION: SLICK WILLIE’S FAMILY POOL HALL
ADDRESS: 1200 WESTHEIMER @ MONTROSE
DATE: SATURDAY OCTOBER 16, 2004 12 noon - 3pm

Oh, some folks from Element will do a demo at the Skatepark of Austin saturday evening. Colt Cannon, Jeremy Wray, Tosh Townsend, and someone else. Check out the SPoA website for details.

The whole day wraps up with a party at 4912 Duval. Some girls who live on the corner are renting a moonbounce inflatable thing.

I checked out the beginning of a bootleg of the new Billy Bob Thorton movie, Friday Night Lights, this afternoon. The film, shot near Austin, starts off with a compelling sequence of clips depicting a Texas high school football team holding its first practice of the year. The visuals are set to a very powerful instrumental piece of music performed by Austin’s Explosions in the Sky. Checking the film’s soundtrack, it looks like Explosions in the Sky are responsible for most of the music in the movie. I haven’t seen more than the first five minutes, but off the strength of those five mintues, I’m thinking now of going to see a matinee tomorrow afternoon.

Explosions in the Sky are a great local band, by the way. They grew up as skaters in Midland, Texas and moved here several years back. You can hardly catch them in Austin, though, because they are constantly touring. Jason Lee is also a big fan of them and I’m wondering if he may have helped pass their CD’s to the right hands which might have helped get them this high-profile soundtrack deal. Last time I spoke with the band, I told them how Midland has a great skatepark. They’re pissed it had to come about after they spent so many years there without one.

The 45th Street Ditch has maintained a strong, low-profile role within Austin’s skate culture for many years. Fun for many, and almost always available for a session, its future seems in doubt. Developers are cramming a movie theater and strip shopping center on the land adjacent to the ditch and how they plan to integrate the skate spot into their master plaan is at present unclear.

The ditch has already survived an assault from authority a few years back when a city worker glued yellow traffic markers all over the surface of the ditch. I wasn’t even skating at the time, but I was outraged by this civic savagery and gathered a crack team to liberate the ditch with hammers and masonry chisels. Done and Done.

A couple weeks ago two guys thought they might modify the ditch in light of its possible impeding destruction. They globbed concrete to improve the transition between bank to wall. Neither of these two guys’ names include the words ‘Seth’ or ‘Johnson,’ by the way. Kevin, Adam, and I visited the ditch on Sunday to check out the handiwork. After a short time of skating, we were asked to leave by a security guard who informed us that we were on private property. This never used to happen in the past because the property used to belong to the state. Fortunately, the guys who had done the concrete work told us that we could drop the name, “Dennis” to get past any security guard harrassment. Apparently this guard, Dennis, happened upon them when they were laying the concrete and said he was in full-on support of people skating the ditch so long as they don’t step into the construction site or spraypaint the area. Sure enough, uttering the words “We’re friends with Dennis” cut through the crap we were hearing and the photo / skate session continued.

Here are the pics. (down at the bottom).