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 Earth & 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 Earth 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 Earth 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