Thursday 21 July 2022

Arthur, ON

 Brent Barnes Memorial Skatepark

Arthur, ON

Tucker St

After many years of hard work by the Lions Club of Arthur, the town finally has its own subpar park, riddled with minor issues that could have been easily corrected by a good skatepark company that cares about the final product.

(Update 2023- 'Canada's Most Patriotic Town' finished the sodding and recieved the 'Snap' ramp that was on back order. Update first, then the old review. Someone contacted me regarding these issues and tried to call me out. See comment section below)

2023
As posted by Anonymous 1, there is a 1/2 inch lip on the ramps.

The crushed gravel has been replaced with sod as Anonymous 2 said. 

The 'Snap' bank ramp from CRC's 'Pro-Ops' line was what drew me to the park originally (see below).  I was disappointed it was missing last year. No that I've skated it, I'm not impressed. There are way better 'bank to wall/tombstone' features out there. I got a sesh in, but I wouldn't recommend communities spend their cash on these.

The top has a harsh angle making tricks, even dropping in, difficult.

Yikes, that's a lot of of rust in a year.



Final Verdict. Fun, not worth the $$$ or time. A 2ft quarter would have been better.
Here's what I got up to.



OG POST

The park looks like your average pre-fab park, and it is. Metal ramps on a fresh concrete pad. 

For some reason, the whole pad is surrounded by crushed gravel (same stuff that's on the baseball diamond) and it is all over the park, causing wheel bite.  I hope that it's replaced with grass.

The one feature I was interested in skating is the 1/2 deck ramp(Top Right of Concept). Guess which ramp isn't included in the finished park!?!

One thing this park has it space. Space that could have been better utilized. The flat of this box is so short that it made ollieing the small stair set difficult. The rail is too high for the run-up. 




This big, triangular pad. Why? I thought is was going to have donor names but they appear to be on the sign. Maybe they'll be added but for now, it's an expensive place to have a bench. 


Pumptracks, fun for about 3 laps. Ok, maybe that's my bias but putting it on the grass will surely lead to problems.

Crushed rock on the mini? You Bet!

This is what kills me. The Concrete Pad was donated (time & materials I think). The concrete guys did their thing. The pad is smooth, not broom finished, and the joints are clean.  The Professional Skatepark installers could have made the choice to move the ledge ON the joint rather than leave the joint in the run-up to the ledge. This is also the only ledge/manny pad/rail in the park.  The ledge is the classic 2 segmented CRC ledge and the rail is higher than average, ~18". 
I have never been to a perfect CRC park. I would love nothing less than CRC and all other companies under the parent company to close forever. Even their concrete parks are flawed. Bad coping reveal to bowls and entire parks being deemed unfit for use. Do better or get out CRC!

Stayner, ON

 Stayner, ON

Stayner Arena

269 Regina St

Stayner, more like Stay-far (away). Back in 2019, I did a 11 park run. It was supposed to be 12 but the Stayner park was AWOL when I arrived. A few unanswered emails this year so I decided to risk it and try to hit the park again. A new asphalt pad had been created for the park on the arena property. I’ve only seen these type of ramps in a few places and their always in terrible shape. For some reason, the ‘box’ is off to the far side of the park and surrounded by big rocks. Most surfaces are warped with bolts sticking up. There’s some really warped transition plates. Basically, don’t make this park a destination. If you’re trapped in Stayner, here’s the park🤷🏼‍♂️ I’ve sent some suggestions to SP&R but nothing will happen.














Innisfil Beach Pumptrack

 Innisfil Beach Pumptrack

Innisfil Beach Park

Innisfil has 3 spots (this is the 3rd) with plans for a new park in the works. The town square is also under construction that looks to have a street hip. The town passed a helmet by-law a few years ago. It's dumb. The by-law, not helmets.  The by-law creates a problem that didn't exist. 'Skate at your own risk' had the city covered. There's no enforcement of the helmet rule. The police don't need this placed on them. The sign doesn't even reflect the actual, full by-law. The town has a mobile park that is supervised with helmet enforcement.



Monday 4 July 2022

Mitchell, ON

 Mitchell, ON

West Perth Skatepark

Mitchell & District Arena

185 Wellington St across from the fire hall

Big pre-fab obstacles on a rough old parking lot. The hubba is sitting on the grass.


10th park of the day. No big deal.







Blyth, ON

 Blyth

Blyth Arena & Community Centre

377 Gypsy Ln

Possibly community built DIY. Might be from a prefab company. All the ramps have forklift lift points.


9th park of a long day.








Exeter, ON

Exeter

South Huron Rec Centre

94 Victoria St, or park at the cul-de-sac.

A Bigger, Badder (worse) Grand Bend. 


10 park road trip