Above: Mid-flight ollie-to-Smith grind-transfer from a vert ramp to a
mini, brought to you by Tom Groholski, Skatezone, Atlanta.
Inset: Skateboard Connection's new bowl with past vert framework.
Opposite page: Tom Taylor gettin' down and out at Skatezone.
62 THUSHER MAGAZINE
make that pool, but with a larger deep
end bowl, a capsule pool with two
hips leading into a ripping shallow
end. All of my ramp ideas-spines.
hips, everything-have come from
pool skating. One good thing about
wood is every two years or so you
can rearrange your skatepark.
What other bowls have you built?
Just mini-ramp bowls like Phillips
park and Easter Vert. Ive been
trying to talk people into doing this
for four years now and finally, two
people who don't know much about
skating. Bill Journey at Skatezone and
Rich Moore at Charleston Hangar, said,
"just do whatever you want." They let
the skaters build what they wanted to
skate. Rich skates but he listened to the
skaters and wanted to do whats best for
the skaters.
Any closing comments?
I've been trying to tell people for
years that bowls have all the facets of
skating in one ramp. There's your mini-
ramp, hips, vert, airs, lip tricks. Thars
where it all came from. If people think
that riding pools or bowls isn't as fun
as their mini-ramp, then they haven't
ridden a bowl before. It's quite an
experience seeing little kids who ride
small ramps getting stoked riding the
bowl. They ride around in the shal-
low and then drop down to the deep
and get the biggest rush of their life.
Any future jobs in the works?
It's will be hard to build stuff that
will better those pools. The only thing
I can see that will be better, is to build
a replica of the Upland Combi-Pool.
Corey O'Brien wants to build a clam-
shell in San Jose.
I'd like to thank the crews that helped
build: Clint Deaton, Jimmy O'Brien, Jeff
Load Thompson, Mike Cruz and Jordie
at the Skatezone. Mike Thoralson and
Blaize Blouin at the Charleston Hangar
Also, Jim Taylor, the manager over at
the Skatezone.
-Kevin Thatcher
TRATOSPHERE