by Brian Merlen
I used to skate street all the time dude, like seriously! All I would ever do is skate street. It’s tons of fun, very exciting trying to avoid cops and security guards and whatnot. Sometimes its not really that good if you just want to practice though. Street skating often has so many factors to deal with. Crazy crackheads talk to you when you street skate. Security guards and wannabe cops try to show their authority on your 12 year old mob kick flipping ass. Not always a fun time.
One day when I had some time on my hands, like I do at this moment, I sat down to think about skate parks. I started to think about how nice having a skate park would be for my town. How no one could kick me out before I got my trick in. Or how if I could get a transition park that was like the opposite of street skating I could then start skating a whole new way, the way they skate bowls out on the other coast. The same way Daewon Song went from doing only curbs to transition I wanted in on the action too! Only problem was that I was a broke kid in Connecticut, which was about as far from Cali as you can get without leaving the US. I thought I would never really get a skate park in my town.
As time went on skate parks started being built in CT. Most of the best ones were far away from me though and my family wouldn’t take me like all these lucky kids around me with nice lives and money, the ones that go to Woodward every fucking summer. All I had near by me was little prefab skate parks with 5 foot tall ¼ pipes. They suck yeah, but I mean it’s better than not skating. So I dealt with it as best I could and would skate the parks whenever possible or just hit up street spots.
Eventually I worked up the strength to write a letter to my local paper. It got some attention about the issue. People started realizing we just were doing a sport, that we didn’t want to fuck up their rails and ledges. We just didn’t have anywhere else to go and a lot of parks charge a fee. I hate fees that’s why street skating is always so fucking good. No fees, freedom baby! That’s how I wanted my park to be. Freedom, no money, no pad nanny, no fucking kooks. I thought I could never get a park like that though. I mean I thought that if it were easy to get a nice flowing concrete park that someone would have gotten it made already.
After about seven years of debate over insurance, liabilities, pad requirements and bullshit I finally got my dream to come true, and without all the rules like I wanted too! Its funny looking back at all of this time and all my friends who told me I was wasting time trying to convince non-skaters to help us get a park. I went from being some 14 year old skater who just wrote a persuasive letter in class for a project, to some 21 year old skate instructor. Looking back at it I am happy. It was a long battle to make my town commit the 310,000 dollars it took to get me my favorite spot, but hell it was worth every penny in my eyes. I have never woken up so ready to skate in my life. The park opens at 8 am ‘til dark. Tell me that isn’t madddddd hours! I am so happy, even without lights I am glad they at least have the decency to open the park early. I work as a pad nanny in a prefab park in another town. They don’t open ‘til 3pm so that’s why comparatively I am so stoked on the hours. I mean Stamford really hooked us skaters up. We feared we would have some shitty rule-infested park once too, but thankfully recreation did not make any stupid rules.
I really like the bowls there. I had never skated one until they built this park. It’s such a different form of skating compared to mini ramp or street course. I had never tried anything like it before. I love it though because it still lets you rip while not making you put too much pressure on your body. I ain’t the same since my foot got hurt and I worry that I may never be a great street skater like I once was. But having this park showed me that I don’t need to beat people in skate all day. It showed me that even just cruising can be fun, can be made challenging even. I think a lot of street skaters think they are the shit when they really have no idea what they are doing. I know I was like that. But ever since I restarted I have tried to be more well rounded….to cruise around the park more and to just have fun with it. Old school tricks and transition skating can meet new school somewhere. Look at Brent Atchley dude! Now that’s a skater I think is sick. Its like street meets bowls and the combinations can make something insane like cheese and crackers style. Well I love this park guys and I hope you can get one like it too. Fuck prefab man, why get a skatelite wood park when you could have one of these babies?
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