FRESH TRACKS
SANTEE, CA
The city of Santee, CA, a
desert community on the fringe
of San Diego, has reintroduced
concrete to Southernmost
California (missing since the clo-
sure of Del Mar Skateranch in
the late '80s) with the area's first
free skateboard park. The medi-
um-sized area features hips, pyr-
amids, mini-rails and a half
bowl, and is a walk-up-and-skate
type of deal à la the parks in
Santa Rosa and Yuba City.
The opening day festivities
featured a turnout by several
hundred skaters as well as the
city's entire police force, volun-
teer police force and even the
once force
fire department (complete with
hook-and-ladder truck) and
ended with a swarm of kids run-
ning into each other, as well as a
few wrestling matches between
area law enforcement and
skaters who weren't wearing the
mandatory full pads.
Where: Near San Diego
Although the city has conceded
to building the park, it would seem
that they have some severe reser-
vations about the place-apparent
in the park's sign, which issues
strong warning to be good. Since
opening, there has been an almost
around-the-clock patrol of police
officers at the park to ticket those
not obeying the pads rule as well
as to harass, browbeat and finger-
print anyone in or around the facil-
ity who seems suspicious.
ein
The skatepark is located in
the Woodglen Vista park, and
weekday mornings are the
least crowded times to skate.
-Michael Burnett
What: Concrete pyramids, hips and bowls with
small metal rails
Good: The hips
Bad: Cops give tickets to enforce the full-pads rule
Overall: 6 out of 10
Where: Near Seattle
What: 4 foot spine, bowled corners with coping, ledge
and little snakerun into a bowl with a hip
Good: Smooth, no pads, rail and a ledge
Bad: Kinda small, some hips hard to hit
Overall: 4.5 out of 10
SILVERDALE, WA
Andrew Reynolds reels in a kickflip high
above one of Santee's shapely hips.
One of the newest additions to the
slew of Seattle area 'crete parks is in
Silverdale. To get there, you have to
take a ferry across Puget Sound from
Seattle, or else drive around the
Sound through Tacoma. I recom-
mend the ferry, because it's a nice lit-
tle boat ride.
The park is pretty fun. It features
a 6-7 foot bowl, a couple of hips, a
small rounded spine and a small
coping spine that both go into a 4
foot bowl, a banked hip, and a 5
foot, mellow quarterpipe. There are
definitely lines to be had; the ques-
tion is finding them. Problems with
the park include the fact that the
bigger bowl is at the top end of the
park, and everything slants down-
ward from it. You can get some
speed out of it, but there's nowhere
to go except a mellow quarterpipe.
Some of the hips aren't easy to hit
either, and there are no lines to the
best hip there. All in all, it's a fun
place to cruise around, and it feels.
like a mini road trip because you
take a ferry and drive through some
woodsy areas to get there. BMXers
are not allowed, but watch out for
uncoordinated rollerturds.
Wez Lundry
This 24 karat Caballerial was mined out
of the Silverdale spine by Ben Krahn.
22 THRASHER