The New Tampa Skatepark Is Almost Complete

Skateboarders have a month to brush up on a batch of new extreme tricks, in time for the opening of the New Tampa Skate Park.

Team Pain, a skate park design-build company that employs young skaters to do the work, is on schedule to complete the course next to the New Tampa Recreation Center by mid-March, project manager Brad Suder said.

The course will open to the public shortly after the construction workers conduct a series of test runs and city inspectors give the final OK, which should take a few more days.

The word is getting out, and skaters are ready to dive in, city and skate park officials said.

“We get good advertising when they drive by on school buses from the middle school and high school,” said Mark Staffieri, a senior project manager at Cutler Associates, the general contractor.

“Several kids stop by frequently to see what’s going on. The public interest is there.”

Craters, ledges and dips stretch across the half-acre site at the New Tampa Community Park, next to the Liberty Middle/Freedom High schools campus on Commerce Park Boulevard.

City inspector Chuck Fernette estimated 300 yards of concrete will be poured to create the extreme obstacle course.

The 15,000-square-foot park is designed to appeal to skaters of all skill levels.

Based on the design, the course features elements probably most suited for the intermediate skater, but there is plenty for beginners and advance skaters to like, Team Pain foreman Lance Spiker said.

The course has a bowl that resembles a swimming pool with two depths – a 5-foot-deep section and a 7-foot-deep section. Course designer Tito Porrata turned down requests in the planning stage to design a deeper one.

Skaters can disappear off the top rim, down the steep wall and into the bowl then resurface on the opposite end, where they will prepare to tackle a street course of elements.

The design includes a series of quarter-pipe turns that allow skaters to flow from one element to the next.

The course will test a skater’s skill and agility handling pyramids, stairs, curbs, handrails, ledges, banks and hips.

The skate park will feature elements and obstacles skaters are likely to encounter on the street or outside of an office building, without being hassled or chased away.

“We make them more user-friendly,” Spiker said.

City park officials and design consultants from Team Pain met with area skaters for more than a year to get their input on the design.

Despite efforts to cap the budget at $500,000, the addition of stadium lighting for nighttime use and fencing pushed construction costs to nearly $700,000.

Although early discussions included BMX bike riders, those plans changed when city officials cited a concern about the potential damage the bikes could do to the park.

The city awarded the contract in August to Team Pain, headquartered in Winter Springs near Orlando.

Most of the 12 young men assigned to build the skate park in New Tampa are from Florida and Colorado.

“All of the guys doing the concrete work are all skaters,” Staffieri said. “They know what they are doing.” This is going to be a great skatepark!

Here is a what it looks like to drop in on Bob’s Megaramp. I think I will pass on this one.

In 1989 Brad Dorfman was on top of the world with Vision Street Wear. Back in those days it was Dorfman and Powell that spawned pretty much all of the big skateboard companies that are out there today. Most skateboarders can all be some tracked back to Brad in some way or another. Here is an article in the Orange County Register from  March 23,1989 that talks about Brad protecting Vision Street Wear. This newspaper clipping is a classic.

Brad Dorfman Fights to protect Vision Street Wear Name

Here is a link to the newspaper article

Purchasing your first skateboard

For beginners in skateboarding who are not familiar with what they should do first, skateboarding for beginners will facilitate them to realize the essential basics concerning skateboarding.

What do you need to know before you buy a skateboard: Before you buy a skateboard, you need to know what you want to do with it? If you want to be poser, than you don’t need to buy an expensive deck, you can buy a cheap skateboard in a supermarket. But if you want to skate with your deck then you need a good skateboard. From my experience I advise you to do not skimp your money and buy good and resistant deck in skate shop, not in some supermarket. Be right-minded and don’t buy cheap decks which will preclude your up growth.

How to choose the right skateboard: To choose the first and right skateboard for you, I advise you to get help from the skate shop salesman. Tell him that you are beginner, what you want to do with your skateboard and I guarantee that he will help to choose apropos skateboard exactly for you.

What to do next: once you have purchased your skateboard like CREATURE BONEHEAD KILLS COMPLETE, start using it. To start with you just need to start riding, do not try tricks prior to you feel comfortable and stable on the deck. Learn how to shift skateboard front from one side to other, learn how to ride manual – riding only on two wheels, and other basic things. In the early stages I recommend to begin skating in asphalted ground. Do not go to skate parks before you are fully prepared.

Tricks: When you feel ready and you know how to do the basic things, you can start learning tricks. The first and most important trick which is the basic of all tricks is the ollie – it is when you jump with your deck. It is a simple trick, but you must learn it very well, because if you don’t know how to do an ollie, then you can’t do other tricks. After you have learned the ollie you can learn other tricks like pop shuvit, kickflip and more. I advise you to buy special skate shoes, because with those shoes it is easier to do tricks than usual shoes.

Skate 2 Looks so bitchen I just found this clip and thought I would embed it on the site here.

Jessup Griptape and DC Shoes Team Up

Jessup Griptape and DC Shoes are pleased to announce the new DC branded griptape collaboration. The DC branded griptape will feature various screen-printed DC logos styles and come in a co-branded custom designed box.  Jessup Griptape, the leading griptape brand, has been producing premium skateboard specific griptape since 1975 and is widely revered by skateboarders’ world wide as the best griptape in skateboarding.

“DC is the perfect partner. They have a long-standing commitment to skateboarding and unbelievable team. We continuously seek to align ourselves with the core brands that continuously build skateboarding,” stated Bud Smith of Jessup.

The co-branded griptape will be available exclusively through DC. The collaboration is the one of a few for select core skateboard companies that will have Jessup Griptape offered as their own griptape product.

DC and Jessup team rider PJ Ladd put it quite simply, “The original skateboard griptape. Perfect grip, no holes, plain black.”

Red Bull held the first snowboarding competition in New York and it was also probably the biggest urban snowboard event in North America. The event consisted of a large ramp that was nine stories tall and 150 yards long. Snowboarders like Shaun White, Travis Rice, Terje Haakonsen, and Shayne Pospisil battled it out for the $100,000 prize.

The athletes will drop in from this nine-story height before flying off the specially constructed kicker toward an immense 80 foot-long hip, designed by Frank Wells and Mike Bettera of Snow Park Technology to allow riders multiple angles of trajectory— frontside or backside, landing on either the right or left side of the massive 45-degree spine. Additionally, the groundbreaking ramp design will allow spectators to get up close and personal, giving fans an opportunity to experience the action first hand as the riders spin roughly four stories into the sky.

Red Bull Snowscrapers is now history, with Shayne Pospisil taking a surprise win and pocketing a cool 50 grand, repping the Northeast hard with his Jersey roots. 16 of the world’s best snowboarders took to the immense drop-in that stood nine stories tall in New York City’s East River Park, hitting the 80-foot-long hip jump unique to the Red Bull Snowscrapers event.

Shayne defeated Torstein Horgmo in the final round, stomping a solid backside 900. After throwing a victory method air on his final hit, Pospisil was swarmed by friends, family, and fans. “Having all of my friends and family here is amazing,” he said later. “It’s a dream come true.”

The third-place match-up featured Scotty Lago vs. Travis Rice; Travis was looking strong all day through the semis but started struggling with backside rodeo 900 attempts in the final rounds, so Lago’s backside 900 earned him the third place spot. Snowboarding legend Terje Haakonsen walked away with best trick honors, bombing the drop-in with his back foot unstrapped and kicking a one-footed method air that brought cheers from the crowd.

With the massive hip set-up, hot sets from bands Valient Thorr, Black Gold, and Anthrax (with special guest Chuck D.), and throngs of awesome NYC fans, Red Bull Snowscrapers is going down as the dopest snow contest to hit the Big Apple.

Results
1. Shayne Pospisil
2. Torstein Horgmo
3. Scotty Lago

Story Courtesy Red Bull, Photos Courtesy Flickr / Red Bull

16-year-old Riley Hawk making his own mark on the skateboarding world, keep an eye on this kid he has a good trainer