austin skate notes

Wow. So many obstacles conspired to interfere with my trip to Amarillo this past weekend, yet, when I talk to people about it, I keep hearing myself say, "nothing went wrong." This is in spite of me twisting the crap out of my ankle just 4 days before our departure. This is in spite of suffering such intense back cramps that I was writhing in pain and crying. This is in spite of slamming so hard in the fullpipe that I had to visit the nearby emergency clinic for stitches. That’s how great a trip we had.

The skatepark is definitely a contender for my favorite skatepark in Texas, and would probably be among my top 5 favorite skateparks in the world. For the Texas title, its closest competition would have to be Austin’s Mabel Davis public skatepark which won’t open until December 3rd, 2005. (That’s confirmed as of a meeting I attended earlier this afternoon.) Obviously, this assessment is limited to the 30 or so skateparks I’ve ridden, and doesn’t include Shanghai or the Black Pearl. As I said in an earlier post, it’s also the finest skate roadtrip destination Texas has to offer thanks to the neighboring Palo Duro canyon and the cool locals. Everyone we met at the skatepark and around Amarillo was super friendly and had a great attitude.

Most obvious among the features that make Amarillo such an exciting skatepark is the fullpipe-cradle. No other public skatepark in Texas boasts a fullpipe, let alone a cradle. This one has both and plenty of excellent lines to enter with as much speed as you need to go as upside down as you feel comfortable. Cary Jackson talked at length about how much better we like the setup for this cradle configuration over its predecessor in Carbondale, Colorado. The Carbondale fullpipe cradle is at the end of a flatbottomless halfpipe, so your lines are pretty restricted to running parallel with the flatwall in the fullpipe. In Amarillo, you can ride the bowl outside and come from almost any angle into the fullpipe, carving high on a wall to set yourself up for a big cradle carve.

But it ain’t like beating up on your little brother. Grindline, builder of both these fullpipe-cradle skateparks, crafted the Amarillo fullpipe to cone down from a 20′ diameter at the mouth to a 16′ diameter surrounding the cradle. This reducing transition presents a whole other level of challenge. As you ascend, your muscles record that transition to memory such that during your descend, that’s what they’re expecting. If you’re carving or even kickturning, the descending transition is different than your ascending transition, which can put you on your head real easy at the bottom if you’re not able to adjust accordingly. In no way is this a bad thing. It just makes it more difficult to master on a single weekend trip.

The facility has been open approximately four months now, and already the locals have rapidly progressed at the park. They went high in the cradle and had blazing fast lines through the bowl. I noticed that almost all the people at the park were skating, which helps account for their skills. If you go to a place like Ingleside, you’ll see some people skating, but a lot of kids hanging out smoking cigarrettes at the entrance. In Amarillo, they show up to ride.

Other than the bowl / fullpipe, the skatepark features a flow course with some banks, a pyramid, a couple of quarterpipes, and a short handrail down a three-step. This is where the facility pales in comparison to the strong street offering available at Mabel Davis. There has been some talk that the city of Amarillo may expand the facility with more authentic street terrain.

Other details:

• Free
• No pads or helmets required
• Unsupervised
• No lights
• Open from sun up to sun down 7-days-a-week
• Restrooms
• Nearby emergency care clinic
• Barbecue grill on site
• No electricity for jamboxes

The nine of us camped about 45 minutes away in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Absolutely beautiful and an essential part of any roadtrip to this skatepark. Other interesting attractions include the Cadillac Ranch where that guy burried some cadillac cars in the dirt so their rear ends stick up in the air. There’s also the ‘Big Texan’ steakhouse where you get your steak for free if you can eat all 72 ozs in one sitting. If you fail this mission, you pay $72.We chose to entertain ourselves with the indoor shooting gallery instead. Sprinkled throughout town is an interesting street art installation where someone installed these yellow diamond traffic signs along busy streets that have nonsensical messages. I recall seeing– "We Win", "We call him count dracula", and a screaming eagle with talons bared. This was way cooler than the horse statues they have throughout Amarillo that local businesses painted. You know, like how that town up north did those cows and Lake Charles, LA did alligators. I think Tulsa, Ok did penguins, or maybe that was Louisville, Ky. Whatever. It’s so bandwagon.

Anyway, thanks to James for taking us up there in his plush van. Thanks to the Amarillo locals for repeating their tricks a million times so I could get my shots. And thanks to the hoop snakes for allowing us passage unscathed through their domain.

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