Being in a long-distance relationship, I got used to traveling for a few hours regularly, but I made the extra effort to bring my board with me this time. Not just because I wanted to do this sooner, but my girlfriend has picked up skating again as well. She is still at a beginner level, learning Ollies and never rolled down ramps before, etc. When pondering places to skate, she tried to think of anything local, but (outside of parking lots) she didn’t know where to skate. That’s when I decided it would be a good idea to look at Google Maps and just look at our surroundings that way. A little bit later, we discovered a small nearby skatepark.

The Skatepark

I grew up without a skatepark and never felt like people wanted me or my skating at the places where I pursued it. If I had a skatepark like this at home, I would have had a place of belonging. The obstacles at this spot are beginner-friendly but great for advanced tricks as well. In a corner is a hip with a curved ledge on top; on the flat is a sloped, round rail, next to a miniature jersey barrier. On the other side of the park are a bank and a quarter pipe attached to each other with a little flat on top.

I first took on the hip to get a feel for the park and to warm up. I started doing some of my usual bank tricks and did a Kickflip in between the bank tricks. I never liked the Kickflip, but this day I either felt it, or I’m just starting to like them. I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to take on the hip’s small ramps, and surprisingly she did. The first few rolling down attempts were relatively easy for her with my help, and she managed to get it right away on her own. We were both excited. She is progressing quite fast.

My Video

At the skatepark’s side was a wooden bench that looks like a couch, and I decided to do Mike Vallely’s Public Domain Intro. ‘So you wanna go skating?’ for my video. I felt like I also needed to do a Boneless at one of the obstacles as well and took it to the higher bank. I did the trick off of that and finished the video and the session with one of the cleanest, best feeling Kickflips I’ve done since “returning “to skateboarding.

The round rail hat goes in an upward slope wasn’t left untouched; however, I did not get my trick there. I gave it a few attempts, but after nearly slamming very hard on every shot, I felt like I just wasn’t ready to take on that rail. I didn’t do anything on the jersey barrier, but I want to do something on there.

Final Thoughts

Overall this skatepark does provide everything you need for a great session and progression. The obstacles aren’t too small to be useless but not too big to be intimidating for beginners. It’s a great park that both my girlfriend and I didn’t expect to find. We had a great first experience at the park, and that shows in the video.