Road Rage East 2016

Road Rage 2016.

I went out with Skatelife's Road Rage again this year but things were a little different. First, I was leading a group with another dude and I was doing all the driving as I have a passenger van license. Secondly, our destination was London, ON instead of Montreal.

Here's our entry in the video comp.

In a short week of blazing hot temperatures and torrential down pours we built and seshed a DIY, cooled off at a waterfall, dropped into a giant bank as well as off a rock & hit a private mini-ramp for a jam session.

 Road Rage East 2016 Crew

 DIY

First spot of the trip.

Getting our costume on at Value Village.

Downtown Hamilton. 1AM.

Big bank at Ching Park.

Alex with the Front Shuv.

Hamilton Dam Jam

The Local private ramp for the HamDamJam post rainout.

Medway Bowl, London

Strathroy, ON skatepark.

Noseblunt Pull-in to the big bank.

Some fun at Elmira on the way home.

Strathroy, ON

Strathroy, ON

An old, poorly designed & constructed park with some added DIY features.

Pretty Slacking.

Park #294

Birthday beatdown.

On July 18th I turned 35. No longer a young adult, I'm now just an adult. As my wife put it "half way to 70!"

I reflected on my birthdays of years past.

In 2010 I went out to London, ON and hit 7 parks in a day.

In 2011 I was still lame from an ankle injury from the month before. Even worse, I had planned to build a mini-ramp for my birthday party but had to settle for a pool party instead. First world problems, right?

2012???

In 2013 I lined up early to meet Tony Hawk and see the Tony Hawk tour. the board was also signed by Lizzie Armanto, Lincoln Ueda, Mitchie Brusco, Elliot Sloan and Kevin Stabb.

 In 2014 I hit Vaughan's Village Green skate park. Park # 232

The next morning I barged Leitchcroft Skate Spot in Markham. Park #233

 In 2015 I was determined to learn blunt pull-in fakie and ignored my family for a bit. I got a few and haven't done them since.

That brings us to 2016.

Hit Hillside Skate Spot in Vaughan for a warm up with my friend, Jay.  We both got some tricks and filmed some stuff. I started hitting this hip with regular success.

We met up with some other friends of mine at the new Nobleton, ON skatepark. (full review) We had a great sesh. I was feeling good and after getting some tricks I started attempting a line of 50-50, FS nosepick pull-in, boardslide. The nosepick was killing me but I finally got it and blew the kickflip ender. Got a kickflip a few tries later and we packed it in.

Life Lesson

Whatever you enjoy doing, keep progressing and having fun!

Nobleton, ON

Nobleton, ON

49 Parkheights Trail in Nobleton.

Tosca Community Park

New Line designed park that is fun.

Tosca Community Park also installed a separate Pump Track a few years later.  It has a few lines and a kicker.  It's over by the tennis courts.

How to find Skateparks.

How to find Skateparks.

If you're trying to find parks and you're reading this, you're in the best place for parks in Southern Ontario.  If you're looking elsewhere, I'll give you my tips for park spotting.

1. Skatepark Design/Builder websites and social media.  There are dozens of reputable companies slinging concrete these days. The most prolific in Canada is New Line (Spectrum Skateparks merged with New Line ) but some other companies are getting contracts up here. Follow them and if they're building in your area make sure you get involved.

 Audley Rec Centre (ARC) Ajax, ON by Spectrum.

Brant's Crossing Plaza, Brantford, ON by New Line

2. City Websites. You may have to expand your search when looking by community.  The town of Acton has a park but it's listed on the larger community of Halton Hills website along with Georgetown's park(but only one of the 3.5).

3 Mustatears Skatepark, Acton, ON.

3.Cold Searches. Goggle "X City" skatepark.  Other suffixes can include 'skate park', 'skateboard park', 'skate plaza', 'action sports park' & 'multi-use ramp park'.

Searched 'Elmira Skatepark' and discovered the open house for the future park was only a few days away. I got involved and the rest is history.

4. Random Finds. My wife says I can smell skateparks. On more than one occasion (4 I can think of) I've just gone off in some direction and found a skatepark. Just think, 'If I was a skatepark would I be over here?' Check it out.

Mississauga's Malton Multi Use Ramp Park

5. Other Skatepark Listings. Skatepark tour.ca has Western Canada pretty much covered and there are listings for almost everywhere there are an abundance of parks.

Skate Oregon

6. Google Maps & Street View.

Recently I found a park off another blog and made a trip out to it.  I wanted to see if there were any other parks nearby but found no listings for any.  I used Google Maps and looked at the next town to the North.  

 Most skateparks a located near existing facilities so I started by looking for a community centre or baseball diamond.  Finding the ball diamond I zoomed in and found this.

Port Lambton was a spot that was fun in it's ridiculousness.

I've found parks all over the world using this method. 

Another Park I was having trouble finding was the park in Ridgetown, ON.  The Google Maps view at the time was very grainy and the street view of the given address didn't show any park. I tried a different street that runs along the border of the park and voila!

Another park finding post can be found here.

http://scottdreamsofskateparks.blogspot.ca/2015/08/parks-yet-unseen.html

What a day to take off.

What a day to take off.

I took a much needed day off to just go and skate some parks that are outside my normal routes.  I got out to a park in Hamilton I'd driven by but didn't see the ramp. I later found the dirty twin of Brantford's Rainbow Ramp.  The Dirty Ramp has a huge flat bottom and different height quarters. I didn't lose any speed between the two walls.

I then checked out a park I'd only found out about in New Line's 2014 Season Update. Six Nations Skatepark is easily one of the best small parks in Ontario. Check them out HERE.

See more HERE

After a good sesh, I went to the new park in Caledonia. It, along with Dunnville, was built by Stantec and both had grand openings on September 26, 2015.  I was part of a design work shop in Burlington that used Stantec. The park design was fine but the city went with pre-cast concrete and the park has major issues. Not really sure why they didn't go with a Canadian company but that's probably politics.

See more HERE

Stopped in Caygua on the way to Dunnville. This 'memorial' park needs to be re-built and re-dedicated.  I skated with the locals and encouraged them to go to council. With every other community in the area getting updated parks they need something too.

Lastly, I hit Dunnville. It has a fun design and layout. The kicker gap is less intimidating. I was getting a bunch of tricks but couldn't really put a line together. A local guy, Dave, was filming his friends and caught a totally epic bail when I tried to ollie the 6 set(I'd done it successfully prior to the bail). Nice park for my 290th. 

10 more and I can retire (yeah, right! Wife's asking me to build a quarter pipe for her)

See more HERE

Grabbed some fries and said Hi to Muddy on the way out of town.