Stamford CT
Stamford is Grindline
's Northeast masterpiece. Located about an hour north of New York City on the commuter rail, (the park is within a hardy skate distance from the train station) Stamford is ideal for a day trip for the Big Apple skater who's craving some tranny action that the streets can't always provide, or for anyone who finds themselves anywhere near this burly gem, like Tim Cowie did when he ripped this powerfisted backside 50/50 in the polar bear/combi thingy. Me and Tim skated here for hours on end, then got some cold Foster's and headed back to the City for a night of who knows what. By the way, you have to be twenty-one to browse the Foster's website. Weird world run by lawyers and beer barons, right? Thank God for skateboarding...Louisville KY
Duh. The 24-Hour, public, free, padless, basically lawless "fracture factory" is where the fuck it is at. Go there. Now. Stop reading my goofy blog and get the fuck on it. This is probably about as close as you can get to skating something like the SMP park without leaving the country. (And again, I can only blog about the parks that I've personally skated, but I'm tellin' ya, Louisville is one of the best on the planet.) Yella is free.Nashville TN
Skated Nashville in passing while driving across country. One of the most unique parks I've ever skated with so much space and obstacles to try out different lines. This place is right up the hill from Dukes of Hazzard Cooter Museum. I forget if it was before or after I skated, but I got my picture taken with the General Lee. I hope it was after.San Francisco, CA
Potrero Del Sol! The Roy Brothers took me here one night while I was half in the bag after a Shakin' Michael J show. We had to hop the fence which I guess is pretty illegal but when Ben Roy's leading me on a skate mission (no matter how rag-tag and brief) I'm not trying to fuck around. To skate the "street" section of this park (which is basically a converging pit of various transitions) you have to bomb into the area from a large incline above. The park was basically built on a hill which they incorporated into the design. There are also some of the burliest pools outside of a backyard that I've ever skated. I wouldn't go there drunk (like me) and think yer gonna be all casual and shit. If I ever go back I'm bringing knee pads and I'll be sober!Battle Ground, WA
Moving to the Northwest afforded me ample opportunity to skate Grindline and Dreamland
parks and Battle Ground is Dreamland's crown jewel. It doesn't even seem real. I showed up here at 9AM on a Sunday morning thinking the place would be deserted but it was actually pretty crowded. The word is it's always crowded, and rightly so. Not that I'd want to live in Battle Ground but it is ideally placed in the midst of the 1-5 Pacific Northwest Shred Corridor, being about 45 minutes from Portland and two hours from Seattle, with fabulous skate destinations sprawling in both directions. (Portland probably needs a separate blog)
Seattle WA
Seattle has its good share of skateparks but I think the most creatively designed with the best line selection is the Lower Woodland park at Green Lake.The first time I took Andrew Nelson there some kid was getting lifted out of the combi pool in a stretcher. I was proud to tell my fiend that Green Lake was now my home park.Whitefish MT
This park is pretty well known and with good reason. I was astounded at the possibilities that exist within this skatepark. Lines for years. They built the shit right into the mountain that it's on, using elements of the original rock pilings in some of the park design. On some Lord of The Rings Shit, I thought Gandalf the Grey was gonna drop in and shred the bowl the whole time I was there. This skatepark filled me with mystical wonderment.Ft. Pierce FL
This place is fucking sick dawg. This is the reason why I decided to write this blog entry. I just got off the phone with Tim Cowie and I was telling him (you can't really see from the photo) that in the snakerun it bowls at the end and when you hit the coping there is another steeper transition that goes up to another coping which is the actual lip of the pool. Confusing and weird to talk about but this place brought out the best in my skating. It felt GREAT to be there. You can flow the whole thing and if you go in the morning (when you should because it's hot as fuck by 11am or so) you'll have the place to yourself. I'm pretty sure Animal Chin is lurking somewhere around Ft. Pierce. Go find him. Team Pain!PHOTOS: I took the photo of Tim Cowie at Stamford. I also took the shot of Whitefish from the parking lot. Lucie Anderson took the one of me at Louisville and the rest I stole from the Internet. I spend all my time at skateparks skating and not taking photos. Shit...
