Creature snuck back out to the park the other day and filmed while everyone was in school… hopefully we’ll see some footy in an upcoming Strange Notes (or a future Creature vid). Sneaky, sneaky sneaky.
Also of interest… Terry Adams, the master of flatland bike riding, just got some new footy up on BMX Online thanks to Louisiana native Fat Tony. Check out the trickery here (and make sure you keep watching so you can see the ender).
Write down this date: Sunday, February 18.
On this day, we’re going to get a visit from three pros.
One of those pros will be Danny Gonzalez.
The other will be Patrick Melcher.
The last one will be Steve Caballero.
I’ll be filling in more details soon… stay tuned to the site as well as the forums. Word.
I just got an email from the prolific Dave Carnie, who informed me that his old skateboard company is back in action.
Me, Josh Ew Uh and Dead Gregory rode out to Skate Spot in Lafayette last night for a session that I’ve been feeling sore from all day… they have a great park, but the centerpiece is a masonite masterpiece that made me very, very happy. Thanks to Jason and his crew for making us feel right at home… and Donnie, I tried calling you several times.
Anyway, Jason had some stuff to share from the big Gumbo Jam bowl contest from a couple weeks ago… here’s a pic of 3rd placer Ryan Paukratz with a proper frontside:
And here’s a quick clip of the winner, Chaz Pineda, killing the bowl like only he can:
Thanks again to Jason and the Skate Spot… I need to go take some Tylenol now…
As many of you already know, the Creature team made a completely unexpected trip out to the park, and then over to the shop… word has it that they pretty much destroyed everything, and if fate smiles on us, we’ll have them back in town before the month is over. Here are some pics that Kerry snapped in the shop:
If they come back through, we should know in advance… but ya never really know, right?
I just spoke with Mike Vallely’s web guy… the new season of Drive will be starting in March or April. I’ve been getting asked a lot about this lately so I figured I’d find out… there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but I was told to be on the look out for it. So anyway… in a couple of months, Hammond will be national news. We don’t know the order in which the shows will be done, but I want to give extra props to Mike and the show itself, as they also hit up New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf South to showcase Hurricane affected areas… I can’t wait to see how it comes out.
(Originally posted here at SPS)
Louisiana is one of the luckier states that has had legislation passed allowing public property to be used for skateparks (and other activities in the same vein) with little to no fear of liability as long as that property has been defined for that use by the governent in question (city and town councils).
This legislation is called Act 1199, of the 2001 regular session (formerly known as House Bill 1917). The act and bill history can be downloaded by clicking here.
As it stands, Louisiana currently has three public skateparks… two of which take full advantage of the bill, one of which does not (I’ll explain that shortly).
The skateparks:
1. Baton Rouge’s Velodrome:
The Velodrome is just that… one of those really huge bicycle tracks with large inclined curves. The center of the track hosts a small and unimpressive array of ARC ramps, as well as some weathered home built stuff donated by local shops and skaters. This is the park that doesn’t take advantage of the bill I linked to earlier. Because of the location of the park inside the walls of the track, the Baton Rouge Park and Recreations agency requires staff to be present (they lock and unlock the gates, rent pads, and manage the park while sessions are active). The presence of the park employees are what hinder them… when you have staff on hand, you assume a level of responsibility for the people using the facility. Because of that responsibility, this park requires full pads. One other issue as it related to this liability is that the skating in this park is limited to certain session times… bikes aren’t allowed to use the track the same time skaters use the section reserved in the middle, and vice versa (even though the odds of contact are extremely slim). The park is used, but never packed. Considering the size of the skateboardign community in Baton Rouge, it’s a loss. When you consider that Baton Rouge is the capital of the state, it’s a shame… sort of a testament to the city’s crippling beuracracy.
2. Hammond’s Dreamland Skatepark:
Our park was the result of numerous best-case scenarios coming together, resulting in what amounts to a perfect place to skate. No park nannies, no pad rules, a park designed and built by skateboarders, with input from the local skateboarding community. It goes without saying that Dreamland is known for building some really great parks. The quality of our concrete is very high compared to other concrete parks that I’ve skated, and with our half street/half bowl design, it caters to everyone’s tastes. To our benefit, we have a small government, an accessible Mayor, and a city council that simply isn’t hampered by the political red tape that many larger cities deal with.
3. Shreveport’s Skate Plaza:
Well intentioned, poorly executed. Like Hammond, Shreveport’s plaza allows skaters to roll freely without being monitored, or with any pad requirements. Shreveport’s major problem is the fact that it was designed by a non-skateboarding city staffer. The park design was “inspired” by Rob Dyrdek of DC fame, but the design itself is utterly horrible… there are huge seams where you don’t want them, the concrete has a brushed finish, and there isn’t room to carve out after landing off of some of the obstacles (straight to the grass).
Some of the obstacles simply don’t make sense:
Anyway, these are the three public parks here in the state… hopefully we have more on the way. My wish is that anyone reading this in Louisiana use this as a reference… the legislation we have is excellent for developing public skateparks, but as illustrated above (in the case of Baton Rouge and Shreveport), that good legislation is a waste when the local government shoots itself in the foot via bad management or design.
Josh Ew Uhh, Dead Gregory and I went over to Fast Lane Skatepark last night and pretty much beat ourselves senseless… we saw and skated with Steven from Humidity Skate Shop in NOLA, as well as Aminal Shawn (who also filmed everything for us… thanks again, brotha).
We had a great time, and we highly recommend going there. Just make sure you watch out for bikes, but also note that the bikers that are over there are some of the nicest cats we met. Here’s the footy:
