Chris Levack created an ‘iron wave’ and a prehistoric inspired shade structure for the Austin Skatepark that just opened. Here’s a video telling the story of the skateboarding artwork:

The House Park Skatepark (AKA the Austin Recreation Center BMX Skate Park; doesn’t that just roll off your tongue) has a tentative grand opening set for Thursday June 16th per my inside guy. We all know how carved in stone that kind of info is…but we can hope! I’ll keep you updated. Get ready for the biggest snake-fest in Austin skatepark history.

I can’t wait to get my wheels on the new skatepark here in Austin at House Park. The thing looks all kinds of tasty! The only bummer is that it looks like it’s going to open right when it starts to get hot here in Austin and so far I can’t see any sign that it is going to have lights to get your night session on. They are still finishing up the landscaping and it should be open in the next few weeks.

Check out more pics

I was guilty of the of it when I was a young grom trying to keep up with the big boys at the Benicia skatepark at Willow Glen(RIP). Dropping in and hitting the lip and flailing out feeble attempts at a 540 double kickflip or something like that. I never landed it. Frankly I never intended to.

When the park was crowded and all the rippers were shredding it up I would resort to flinging ridiculous tricks off the main hip for an odd reason; I would rather the other skaters there think I was good by the fact that I was trying insane tricks rather than resort to the basics that I could handle at 11 years old. I would fake that I was better than I was…it was sad.

I bring it up because I’m starting to see it in the next generation. On a given night I head to the skatepark down the street and the kids are lining up to fling off technical wizardry that never gets landed. I fear it may have gotten worse since I was a kid. In fact, there are more kids flailing than there are skating.

Maybe it’s because there are more skaters and the culture has been infected with an underlying sense of competition…which is completely lame.

Can’t we just skate…because it’s fun?

I have seen some terrible skateparks in my day. Seriously did anyone actually talk to a single skater when they designed the Temecula Skatepark? I skated it one time. It’s a shame that so much money was invested and on any given day there are literally no skaters in the Temecula park, generally just a couple little kids on scooters.

The problem with public skatepark design is that it is generally out of sync with progression. The skatepark designs being built are a reflection of skating progression from 20 years prior. The people that design them are older than the skaters defining today’s progression and style and they are out of touch with what skaters want.

When skate parks started getting traction in the late nineties they all seemed to have a bowl. A big bowl. An there was usually about two guys in any given town that spent any time actually skating the bowls. 95% of the skaters were looking for street and park designers and builders were handing us bowls! All of us who were setting the progression for our time those of us 16-24 years old were looking at each other and asking;

“Who the hell designed this crap and why didn’t they ask us?”

I’ll admit, I grew up skating in the late eighties and early nineties when the only parks to skate where leftovers from days gone by; complete with snake runs and zero ledges to grind.

Here’s an example of a skatepark in Lockart Texas. An amazing bowl was built that will barely be utilized when all the kids who will actually be using the park on a daily basis want to do is skate the street area which is barely and afterthought and given a tiny little space on the deck of the bowl. The skaters who want to session the main handrail have to run it out on grass after landing. Weak!

We wanted EMB and they gave us a backyard pool. Thanks for nothing.

My time has finally come, at 32 years old skate parks are starting to reflect the style of skating I grew up on. That is to say that they now incorporate a lot of street style. But I have to ask; are they what the kids setting the progression want?

I will add that the three parks in my town that I frequent were all built in the last 5 years and they all have bowls that are too big and no one skates.

It’s the first day of summer once again! Which means that it’s Go Skateboarding Day! I’m stoked because what looks like a skate park that was built just for me is about to open up right next to my house.

I’m not sure congress has officially marked it as a national holiday nor are the banks closed, but it’s a holiday for us

Here’s a high quality phone photo of it a few months back. Hopefully after work I will roll by there and get in the first session at Brushy Creek Skate Park.

Street Area at Brushy Creek Skate Park