What to do when you're out of parks.

A while ago my friend, Jordan, suggested I start posting my pictures to Instagram. Park a Day started and I don't take it too seriously but I have met some folks and turned people onto other parks. Two days ago I had posted all but 2 of the 277 parks I had been to so what is there to do but go on a mini road trip and take Jordan. After all, he got me into this mess in the first place. It's time he learn what a Spott the Loonie skatepark hunt is all about. I warned him that we might only hit 1 good park all day.

Some background - I have a list of parks I haven't been to and I'm always looking for more, no matter how bad. This trip had a list of 10 and an idea of their quality so I could cut down the day if need be. I was up at 4:45 and picked Jordan up at 5:30 in Toronto. The forecast had called for overnight rain in some areas so I no idea what we would find. I always pack a rain skate and my broom/squeegee.  

Just getting into Brantford, it was beginning to look dry so I made an unscheduled stop at the Rainbow Ramp at Jaycee Park. It was still wet but I rode it for a bit. I’ll be back.

Next we hit Bothwell. I found a list of the Chatham-Kent skateparks. I’d knocked off a bunch of them already on a previous road trip. Most of those parks I learned about from New Line’s website.  In a beautiful community park surrounded by mature trees is John Kish Sr. Memorial Skateboard Park. The park layout looks professional but the construction of some elements is not well done. The ledges and rails are good while some of the other ramps were built without an understanding of skateparks. Still, we had some fun and filmed a line.

Nice and shady.

We drove 10 minuets down the road to Thamesville. This park was designed and built with no skatepark savvy. We were able to hit some of the obstacles, but if I’dd been alone, I would have done a 50-50 on the ledge and left.

Nothing like a zig-zag run up to the stairs.

The infamous Rail From Nowhere!

Jordan make use of the rail from nowhere.

Firing line @ the VOLCANO.

Did we proof read the sign? No? It should be fine.

The one park I knew (hoped) was going to be good is Walpole Island. I found it on this blog - http://chasemarch.com/  while digging for parks. It’s a large park with Q, 7 stair with handrail, 3 step up, box, wedge, rail big 3 set and hubbas and ledges galore.  It’s located just inside the First Nations Territory. All I can find on its designer/builder is that they're from B.C. That narrows it downL. Had some fun and some tumbles and got my first kickflip off a bank.

3 stair step-up was a nice challenge.

 Big brother of the CK ledge.

 Great Park!

When I found Walpole I checked out the Google Earth and Street Views. I use this technique to check out and find a lot of parks. I’ll write a post about it soon. I checked the surrounding communities for parks and found one in Port Lambton (10min away) near a baseball diamond.  When we pulled up and started walking to the park the Caretakers looked up from their cigarettes and said “Gonna try and kill yourselves?” with a laugh. “Yeah” we laughed back. Then we saw the park.

Aluminum rail? Check. 45 degree angles on everything? Check 

 Ridiculous spine? Check.

This is why I brought a better skater than me.

I wonder if this has ever been a problem?

Off to Sarnia to hit the 30+ year old Harry Turnbull Skatepark. It’s really, umm, there. It sure does exist. Two giant hills of cement one of which descends into a large...pit with banks all around and a rail on one side. There have been talks of refurbishing or replacing it. Until a real skatepark company takes a crack at it, it’s just a really old skatepark.

Double bump.

 Big bump.

Down the chute.

 Big Rail.

We finished the day at the Delaware Skatepark. This small park was destined to be modular. The town’s own proposed design was a copy of St. Mary’s concrete park. Spectrum designed/built St. Mary’s and swooped in to save the day, convincing Delaware that concrete is the way to go.

 Some of my pictures were blurry. Sorry.

Hot and exhausted, we went home.