www
SPEED
LIMIT
95
COLLISION F
COURSES
VENTURA
CA
Clockwise from top left: Wade
Speyer zeros in on another road-
side distraction. Jefre Stratton
goes over yet another strategical-
ly placed garbage receptacle.
Overview of the dent in Kent.
Chuck Wampler, back from the
grave and ripping, frontside slides
the massive 56 ft wide vert ramp.
Summer 1996, Tim
Garrety and Roger
Thompson approached
John Oliver, Jr and myself
about building a skatepark.
They had been to the old
Powell Skate Zone and
knew that Johnny and I did
most of the ramp designs,
construction and opera-
tions. They wanted us to
build something bigger and
better. I think we far outdid
our own expectations.
We started brainstorming. We wanted to make a "theme park" like the
Disneyland of skateparks. We found a building, 29,000 square feet of warehouse
right off the 101 freeway. We got a crew to build it. Johnny's dad, John Oliver, Sr.
was the ramp technician leader. He had directed us with the Zone's construction
and was ready to rise to the challenge. The wood and tools were bought, and we
started in late September. The vert ramp came first. 56' wide, 10' trannies, 1', 2',
3' vert sections. The street course is kind of crazy.
We wanted to make it different. There is a 22' vert
wall that has the world's largest launch ramps oppo-
site of it. We call it Skate Mountain. Another ramp
looks like a wave. It has a 3/4 pipe that pitches and
peels like a wave from 12' down to 9' then 6" and 4"
with 124' of continuous ramp. There is a double
roll-in called The Waterfall, the "parallelamyd"
Pyramid thing, a 40' wide 4' tall mini-ramp with a
hip and bowl corner, a 52' mini that has three levels,
various banks, hips, rails, blocks, and 1/4 pipes, etc.
Elaine Thompson did outrageous murals
throughout the room. City and landscapes give the
park an atmosphere unlike any other place.
We decorated it with street lights, street signs, a traffic signal, fake trees, so it
looks like it's outdoors. We opened to the public at the end of March. The
response has been overwhelming. We're listening to feedback and making
improvements all the time. A lot of world travellers have told us it's they're
favorite skatepark. We hope to expand by the end of the year. It is a dream
come true. Come see for yourself. -Mike Taylor
KENT
WA
Concrete Skatepark. Kent,
Washington, 15 minutes
from Seattle. It boasts a 3' bowl, about
15' radius. 2 pyramids, 2 rounded little
hips, 4' quarter-pipe perfectly kinked. It is
a positive movement to the 3 other con-
crete failures done around town. When I
saw the dent in Kent for the first time, I
felt a little better about life in general.
-Carvin Marvin