Tue 3 Jun 2008
Best thing in H-town since the Geto Boys
Posted by seth johnson under Roadtrip Report , skatepark , transition skating[11] Comments
Since the demise of the Skatepark of Houston on Orange Grove, it’s been a difficult sell to get me to visit Houston. Even the grand opening of Grindline’s recently completed mammoth public skatepark was a ‘maybe.’ In the late eighties, I’d drive from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Houston in the rain just to skate the indoor mini-ramp. But with all the cool stuff around Austin to skate, there hasn’t been much of an incentive for me to take a skate roadtrip in a while. Closer than Amarillo and Orcas Island, the new public skatepark in Houston has now returned Bushwick Bill’s hometown to the top of my skate roadtrip destinations list.
This $2.75 million concrete skate behemoth is the largest privately fundraised public skatepark in the nation. It’s also Houston’s first concrete public skatepark (as opposed to its many prefab crap facilities), which has introduced much hysteria and concern on the part of city officials. As a response, Houston’s Parks and Recreation Department is running it like a public swimming pool and is staffing the skatepark with supervisors who will enforce a rule requiring visitors to wear helmets. Even so, it’s an amazing facility complete with lights for evening skating (closes at 10:00 PM) and a great view of the downtown Houston skyline. Although street purists will fault the facility’s lack of a plaza aesthetic, the layout does have a wide variety of terrain. There are banks, hips, quarterpipes, bank-to-jersey barriers, sloped manual pads, rails, mellow bowls, godzilla bowls, cradles, and a very accessible kidney pool replica.
In spite of the typically brutal Houston heat, the grand opening ceremony was phenomenal. A bunch of pro skaters on the Independent 30th Anniversary Tour showed up along with most of the Black Label team and an unknown number of ripping amateurs and old-timey Texas pro skaters. It was cool to see Hosoi snap backside ollie tailgrabs in the kidney pool, but I was more impressed to see the family reunion session of Ken Fillion, Jason Espeseth, Gene Hare, Troy Chasen, Bryan Pennington, Dave Donaldson, and Chris Gentry all skating together in the Kahuna-esque combi-bowl.
I came back with a ton of content, which I’ll add to ASN as I get it all edited. For now, I’ve posted a video teaser from the kidney bowl session and a few photos over on the APSAC website.
Before visiting, you’ll want to check the directions, hours, and rules for the Houston Public Skatepark.
The Skatepark of San Marcos is holding it’s first birthday party this Saturday. Stop by to skate June 7th to enjoy free hotdogs, gatorade, and cake.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
that kidney pool was killer!
June 7th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
looks like they accept hats as helmets!!!!!!! awsome, helmets totally ruin the crease in my hair. plus i heard that wearing on is an instant lose of cool points.
June 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
please lord tell me that man is doing a boneless to frontside invert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 7th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
that’s exactly what he’s doing, and darren navarette was doing the same thing backside- the bonedrecht. awesome.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Bushwick bill is pretty fucking heavy as are the ghetto boyz. Their energy inspired the world and set different flattering mimicry in motion. Essentially, they epitomized a time that america once again proved its innate ability to set extreme precedents. Anyway, Houston was and always be the place where people went to prove themselves; it was a necessary part of the skateboarding paths one needed to walk down so as to prove on could ride what was one of the heaviest vert ramps of all times rather than inactively choosing to live a life stuck in perpetual pointless relativity. Ghetto boyz, texas pools, Jeff Phillips, Craig Johnson, Mike Crum; good times will always be in my heart. Its a special place down there and the scene needed a park. It, though, in itself will never constitute something paramount to any dynamic impulse solely or synergistically that has formed the semantic that skaters of the nomadic style have come to expect when they choose places to skate. Everything makes it special, no hating. Thanks Grindline, Thanks Phillips, et.c., Thanks to the hot sand of Texas. Be there someday to kick it with the good people. Late skate
June 14th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
sometimes, the use of verbose and florid language tends to obfuscate rather than elucidate the concept one hopes to convey. perspicacity does not equal profundity.
in other words, put down the thesaurus, save a few quarters on your words, and put it on a bumper sticker. what are you trying to say? the houston park doesn’t appeal to the well-travelled skater? hogwash. what exactly is the “semantic that skaters of the nomadic style have come to expect?” i honestly can’t figure out what your statement actually is. did you like the park? did you even skate it? give me your ideas the way you thought them up in your head, not the way you wanna present them to a college professor you’re trying to impress…
ps- jeff phillips, craig johnson and mike crum are all from dallas. O.G. houston boys ken fillion, troy chasen, bryan pennington, gene hare and dave donalson were all skating the houston park on opening day; how about some love for them?
June 20th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
MUST…UPDATE…SITE…
June 24th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Updaten das internetzenwebsituch!!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Any news on the Patterson Park mini?
June 25th, 2008 at 1:29 am
galvezstoned’s street section is by for the best thing i have ever skated. it must be seen to be believed.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
UPDATEUPDATEUPDATEUPDATEUPDATE