Skatepunk

Timothy Nickloff and I spent a couple hours last week down in the dirt at the new etnies skatepark of Lake Forest, going over some final changes with Wally and Joe of California Skateparks. There will be six main sections of the park: the Plaza, the Ledge Alley, the Park Course, the Flow Course, the Bowl, and the Skull Pool.

The Plaza will be all ledges and flat rails, along with a manhole-type ollie bump. It will be wide open and will be big enough to get plenty of speed, because it will be the pushing area for the sets of stairs and the hubbas and rails that lead into the park area. The Park Area will be very linear, with banks to a picnic table, manual pads, ledges, and a couple more hubbas. This section was designed for back and forth flow, with little side-to-side flow, to help avoid collisions and improve rideability of the "street" objects. At the far end of the Park Area there are a wide quarterpipe and a wide bank.

Leading down the far side of the park next to the freeway, there is a Ledge Alley, which leads from the Plaza to the Flow Course, through a bank-to-wall and bank-to-curb section. The Flow Course will have a nine-foot vert wall and corner, big enough to get plenty of speed, and will feature enough tranny throughout to keep the speed. There will also be bowl corners, banks, pump bumps, rollers, and banked pyramids. This is the section in the northwest corner of the park, near the freeway and Lake Forest Drive.

The last two sections of the park are the bowl, a 5 and 7 foot mini-ramp-type bowl with corners, hips, and plenty of speed and lines. This will have metal coping. Last is the Skull Pool, which will have parallel walls in the shallow end (6 feet deep) with two matching hips into a nine foot deep end, with tile and coping.

The total area of the park will be about 38,000 square feet, all skateable. The contours of most of the park have been dug, and Saturday, November 15 is the date that the park is set to open...!

Now Playing: Kill Me Tomorow ep (Not sure how much I like it yet, though)

etnies Skatepark Check Out