Mon 31 Oct 2005
Mabel Davis First Ride
Posted by seth johnson under Mabel Davis Bowl , Mabel Davis Street[12] Comments
Sunday morning I fielded a call from Round Rock’s Darrell Lowrance. He said the park was open, so I made a few quick calls and ran down to Mabel Davis to check out the completed public skatepark with Adam and Shannon. Sure enough, there were about 30 people skating and riding bikes around the place. Everyone was stoked. We rode for about 45 minutes before the cops showed up to tell us the facility wasn’t officially opened. Without taking any names, they gathered us all into a group to issue us this warning saying that they’d arrest us next time for criminal tresspass. They said the park would be open on November 14th. So far as I’ve been told, the grand opening is still scheduled for December 2nd, which coincidentally is the same weekend as the Shut Up and Skate contest at the Pipeline Skatepark in Houston. That’s the place built from pieces of the closed Vans park. Here’s a few photos I shot at Mabel Davis during the unauthorized preview session.
Afterwards, we drove over to the refurbished Banana Farm ramp. Mancub and crew have expended a fair chunk of money and energy replacing rotted flatbottom and replacing worn coping which has really freshened-up the ramp. After some issues with trespassers breaking their gate, they’ve clamped down on visitors to the ramp. It was great riding that ramp again.
Saturday, we also travelled out to Copperas Cove to ride a pool at a motel. It was a cool setup with double loveseats and an easy-to-ride shallow end. Here are some photos from that pool session.
Early voting for the Travis County (public skatepark) Bond Package continues until friday afternoon. Here is a link to early voting locations. You can vote at any of those locations regardless of what part of Travis County you live in. Also, you can skip any of the other issues on the ballot. The key one for the public skatepark is the Parks and Open Spaces item.
October 31st, 2005 at 8:38 am
the park looks sweet!
October 31st, 2005 at 10:20 am
I was out there yesterda from about 11 to 2 and didn’t see any of you guys in these pics, although there was a pretty mellow session with about 8 of us. Darrell said he’d be there a while so I left , then when I went back at about 4 it was closed?? The park people told us it was cool to skate as long as they were there, and I was planning to go skate it tonight, and tomorrow night, and the night after that. WTF? I’m going to go slap one of my few remaining original “Skateboarding is not a crime” stickers up there.
October 31st, 2005 at 10:23 am
Jason,
We got there around 3 and the cops showed up around 4.
Seth
October 31st, 2005 at 12:54 pm
Jason– The photos posted here were actually from the previous weekend’s session. Note the unfinished decks.
Yeah, it ended up being a bust. Not sure who ratted on us because at least some of the construction workers said it was cool. I was afraid that might happen, that’s why I stayed to the point of exhaustion. At least the word is that it will be open on Nov. 14. See you in two weeks.
October 31st, 2005 at 5:34 pm
wheres the sesh tonight?
October 31st, 2005 at 6:44 pm
More pics here
http://www.bonelessone.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=A2sAlbum&page=17
October 31st, 2005 at 9:36 pm
ohhhhhh what a great session while it lasted… That marble ledge grinds as smooth as butter I’ll tell you that. Cant wait till it officialy opens. I do foresee a problem w/ BMX’ers in that park seeing as they had us skaters at a 1:1 ratio by the time the cops came. But at least they seemed to be bowl hogs so sucks for you tranny fans.
November 1st, 2005 at 1:17 pm
i have forgotten how much fun crete could be. this place IS!!!
November 2nd, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Just talked to A-2 and they have put a gateless fence around the Austin park and posted it closed until further notice.
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:56 am
what was the skatepark on news 8 austin yesterday? the story was about cancer patients but they kept showing a cement park
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:13 am
The HealthBeat story from yesterday was produced by national news service which specialized in medical reporting and was most likely video taped in Ohio where the drug trials were taking place.
Thanks for watching News 8.
Brian
November 8th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Looks like the Austin skatepark won’t be opened until Dec 3 after all.
I emailed the city asking if we could skate it before the grand opening ceremony. Here’s the reply.
On 11/8/05, Tony.ArnoldTA@ci.austin.tx.us.ArnoldTA@ci.austin.tx.us> wrote:
There are a lot of rumors floating around; however the park is not scheduled to be OFFICALLY open until Dec 3. The remainder of the park is still under construction and the contractor doing that work has asked that we keep the skate park closed until he has finished bringing in his big trucks, its simply a safety issue.