Skatepunk

Went to a couple of new parks yesterday. La Habra has been open about a month, and although I fear that it's doomed for helmet and full pads sessions in the future, they currently use discretion about who to let in without a helmet. All kids who are sketchy don't get let in without a helmet, but he'll let the older guys skate if they show up without one. Anyway, the park is a good sign that maybe they'll all start getting better soon. It's got a 4 foot deep square pool with four round corners, pretty evenly spaced, and a fun street/flow area. There are a couple handrails, a 6 foot quarterpipe, and the rest is a combination of banks and trannies that makes for good hips and easy speed. There is a little spine int he middle, a small hubba, and a bank to rail on both sides of the park, one round, one square. Both of those rails are really long, maybe 30 feet, and they're approachable from the end, too, so you can grind them then go into the bank. All in all a pretty fun park. Go now before it gets too crowded--we had a great session yesterday. It's on Idaho north of La Habra Blvd, south of Whittier Blvd.

After that we went to the new Monrovia park. Rumor has it that Ben Schroeder designed this park, but I have the feeling that he designed something taller and it was chopped down at the building stage. The main trannie feature here is actually really cool. It's a bowl with a fairly big shallow end, about 3-4 feet deep, wide open with decks. Then the middle section has three pump bumps that are a little too close together, but they're still rideable with speed, especially if you're moving sideways rather than straight over them, Then the deep end opens into a bigger bowl, with a coupleof 5 foot tall walls connected by short corners, and an escalated section that gets up to about 8 feet tall but is hard to get speed for. In the middle of the pump bumps is a big taco shaped wall that builds then drops into that escalated section. The entire thing has coping, and the lines are there, but the good ones are hard to find. That alone makes it worth skating. There is also a small street area that is fairly well designed, with a cement jump ramp to picnic table, a hubba or three, a double set of stairs, and various rails and flat bars. It's small, though, and it seemed like speed was hard to get. Still, especially for transition skaters, the park is a lot of fun. It's just off Mountain Ave a little north of the 210.

New Skateparks Check Out