Prime
Clockwise from top:
Cuts
If you're going to parks and not riding bowls like this, you're
clueless. Steve Bailey ponders the fate of the handplant in this
flip-in, flip-out generation. Another sick bowl. Big bird.
Speaking of the new breed, Daxter Lussier forgot the flip-out
part on this kickflip frontside boardslide. Give him time.
80 THRASHER
Chandler Skatepark
Chandler, AZ
T
'hankfully, we can add another park well
done to the expanding list in the USA.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of cities that
are building skateparks without direct skate-
boarder influence, giving away money to con-
tractors who use shoddy construction and cut
corners and produce something utterly wack.
Chandler, Arizona, is no such mistake, but
rather one of the best skateparks in the United
States of America. Definitely top five, maybe
top three. This thing is the shit.
Who woulda thunk Chandler could pull it off?
Chandler is a suburb of a suburb of Phoenix,
whose most well known cultural event is the
Chandler Ostrich Festival, an event which fea-
tures ostrich races (yes, people ride, or "jockey,"
them), ostrich burgers, and other ostrich-
related mayhem, in a pitiful attempt to peddle
ostrich meat to the masses. People in the '70s
and '80s really thought ostrich meat would take
off, and as a consequence people in Chandler
started ranching the things. I tried an ostrich
burger, and it tasted like spiced dirt (and a little
like dog), which is not exactly a compliment to
the chef.
The park is a city park, located in a larger park
with softball fields (the MPC, or mullet per
capita, in Chandler in general and specifically at
this park is perhaps the highest concentration in
the world, and potentially lethal). It is a city
project, built by a cowboy named Darin Fields,
who was there at the opening sporting the
largest belt buckle I have seen in a good num-
ber of years, and a grin so fucking wide because
he knew, he knew, that he had built something
worthy. How did he know? Everyone straight
up told him when they found out who he was.
Darin and Diversified Shotcrete are also
responsible for the Flagstaff park, and have
now cemented their reputation as premium
park constructors. Shane Rathman, westsider
and pool ripper, worked on the park and pro-
vided crucial skater input.
The park has so much going for it. It is huge.
It is smooth. The transitions are pretty much
flawless. The coping is the right size, grinds well
(note to young: you are below contempt if you
are stupid enough to wax this), and sticks out
and up just right, pretty much everywhere.
There is not much wasted space, but enough
flatbottom everywhere. The lines are there.
There is a 9-foot-deep bowl with hips and a
smaller section that has a spine (this bowl is a
larger-scale replica of Windell's "snowbruce"
wood bowl in Oregon). There is also a medium
(6-7 foot) bowl with two hips and an escalator.
There are numerous rails and bars near the
entrance to challenge rail-dogs of varying skill
levels. The park is so damn good that most of
the photos on these pages were taken on the
first or second day, and granted these guys
are rippers, but everyone was busting
because this place is so killer. Opening night
and the following day were demo mode, and
a bunch of out-of-town heads came and rode
with Arizonians who came out of the wood-
work. Seriously missed was the Colvinator,
icing a knee (again!-fuck). Now it's open to
everyone, and I imagine it won't be too long
before some slackjaw trains his ostrich to
skate. Those things are seriously huge and
will fuck you up. Did I mention they taste like
dirt? D-I-R-T. And they are incredibly stupid.
I feel terrible even really writing anything
bad about the park, because it is seriously so
damn good, but just a few hints for the next
one: the bar/box banks are a little harsh; the
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twinkie, a 2-foot lump in the 9-foot bowl, is
useless; and the dip in the medium bowl is
useless as well. The volcano is a little tall for
the tranny that is nearby. Cops in Chandler do
not appear to like skateboarders. Seriously
though, you will go to this park (you MUST
go to this park) and laugh at me and call me
a little bitch for daring to come up with flaws
at a park this good. Well, whatever, I tell it
like it is, and if you don't get the impression
that I am going apeshit gaga over this new
park (25 minutes from where I live), you are.
not catching my drift. It's worth a cross-coun-
try drive. In the new millennium, things are
definitely looking up in America, and
Chandler is seriously leading the pack at
this point.
-Wez Lundry
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