was slightly off center more toward the round
pool, as the west wall of the shallow aligned with
the hip that divided the two bowls along the
northeast corner. The shallow was about 5 feet
deep and at least 16 feet wide, and the length from
the drop-in channel to the hip was at least 15 feet
or more. That was the key to me for good lines
that allowed you to traverse along the bottom
between pools, and that made hip airs possible
and such. Plus the shallow end supported the
speed you gained from the two pools. More calls:
were made to Carje about vital dimensions and
the next thing you knew the new Combi was
under way
Every day I would get a call from OC's finest
pool skaters with progress reports about the
excavation, which required a good eye and the
knowledge of using special tools like fresnoes.
and cut templates that Duncan made to achieve
the proper radii and so forth. Kelly and Rick
used a special tool that Kelly invented to insure
that the transition was cut to perfection—if you
have ridden Kelly's you know that it's the best-
made bowl in OC
The digging took about ten days of perfecting
trannies, blending the shallow end and hip areas
between bowls, and creating corners that would
blow all existing corners away. The new Combi is
three inches deeper than the old one and looks.
bigger in total size. The square measures 37 feet
wide x 31 1/2 feet long, with the hip just slightly
wider and mellower than the old one, and the
round measures 32 feet x 32 feet from the center
point of the drain. The square features 9 feet 11
inch trannies with 1 feet 7 inches of vert, and the
round about 9 1/2 feet of trannies with 1 feet 9
inches of vert. The shallow end is symmetrical,
meaning it is not offset, and is in direct center of
the two bowls. It is slightly smaller and mellower
than the old Combi, as is the drop-in channel.
After the excavation, the re-bar was installed one
bowl at a time. This too was a crucial stage, and constant
supervision of the work crew was important to gain a
superior finished product. The next phase was the gunite,
which cost more than Kelly's whole pool did. It was really
important that the gunite crew and the skate dream team
constructing the project were on the same page, so a pre-
vious old skatepark gunite company was enlisted and
called into action. Woody Douglas supposedly built Grand
Prix and Pomona Pipe and Pool, which were located in
Pomona during the '80s, and his expertise seemed to work
a little mythical magic on the new Combi.
Next on the agenda was getting the coping made to
spec, and if memory serves me right, there are only three
places to buy decent coping in all of SoCal. The compa-
ny to go to is Penrose Tile and Precision
Coping in Sun Valley. The coping on the new
Combi is done beautifully it sticks out per-
fectly and the raised edge on top is pretty flat
in conjunction to the top decking. It doesn't
have that 3% or 4% upgrade like Kelly's does,
Finally the plaster was done, the water for
curing was added, and the custom red, white,
and blue tile was laid by the infamous.
Brentmo, who was taking people out left and
right on opening night (which by the way was
the raddest session since the Pipeline closed
its doors ten years ago).
Vans really outdid themselves this time,
and I don't see anybody else in the skate bíz
putting their money where their mouth is. A
top-class skatepark built with all the trim-1
mings and skateboard abilities/levels taken
into account covered under one roof is one
of the biggest and brightest accomplish-
ments of the decade in skateboarding Hats
off to Steve Van Doren for starting the ball
rolling and using the contacts within the
skateboard community to design and build a
fully functioning and operational skatepark
which blows away anything built by the clue-
less city governments who recklessly spend
BROOKSTONE
taxpayers dollars on poorly designed and
costly built city parks made by our lovely
friend the landscape architect. Skatepark
builder extraordinaire Wally Hollyday sums
up the skatepark design dilemma best by
using the analogy, "When building a killer
golf course, do you use a landscaper or
Arnold Palmer?" You figure it out.
Another round of thanks must go to
Dave Duncan and Rick Carje, who
designed and supervised the construc-
tion. Last but not least, I would like to
personally say thanks to all of the people
who helped build the park and especially
those who toiled on the new Combi to
make my wildest dreams come true.
again. They are: Kelly Bellmar, John
Cormack, Nathan Delong, Clint Detton,
Barret Deck, Aaron Devine, Brian Gerard,
Tim Hadden, Ron Hanstein, Kevin
Hartel, Robbie Hayes, Neil Heddings
Nick Henderson, Brett Hickman, Chuck
Hults, Billy Lohrig, Eddie Reategui,
Tyrrell Rathburn, Jake Brown, Brent
Bowers, Pat Tesselli, Tim Trudell. Chad
Vogt, Matt Webster, and champion
Bobcat excavator Ron Harder. Salba.
Left: There's no "I" in teamwork.
Above: The finished park, ready to be ripped.
73