Famous spot/city anticipation vs realization

[Bousiña]

Banks are my favorite thing to skate and Barcelona lived up to all my dreams. I’m a pussy tho so some were steeper than I imagined but plenty of mellow banks for me too.

All my fantasy tricks I thought I had for this thing died immediately lol. I don’t have shit for this it turns out.


Also that Barceloneta bank with the gap that Gustav and Tyler Surrey skate is fucking insane. That’s a wallride not a bank. That was eye opening.

Right?? I love to skate banks too and when me and my friends arrived for the first time at this spot almost all the tricks I wanted to do seemed impossible for me lol.

On the other hand, we shared the session with Jesus Fernandez and it was awesome to see him skating that spot.

[itsyourdad]

i moved to chicago from st. louis last year and the fact that chicago doesn’t have more coverage is ridiculous. this city is a fucking skatepark.

[Billy Bitchcakes]

What's on the other side of the china banks? Is it a massive drop to your death?

[43]

What's on the other side of the china banks? Is it a massive drop to your death?

It’s a bridge a story or so up from the street but it doesn’t feel like a gnarly drop off and you don’t even notice it because there’s a ledge about a foot deep on top and most people don’t touch the lip.

[MusclesMarinara]

FDR = Splits City. Still a fun place once you get the feel of it down though.

[Mike Oxwelling]

LA "baby" picnic tables.    They're not small.  Sticking your leg between the bench and the table on a ledge trick really hurt.

[GAY]

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Imma have to disagree with you on new emb is better than old emb. Sucks that some of the old EMB crew is dealing with hardships n such.

[close]

What's the story with the new EMB? What's been sitting there for the last 20 years?

A pack of angry lesbians took over the place for a while.

[skate_or_dingus]

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Imma have to disagree with you on new emb is better than old emb. Sucks that some of the old EMB crew is dealing with hardships n such.

[close]

What's the story with the new EMB? What's been sitting there for the last 20 years?

[close]

A pack of angry lesbians took over the place for a while.

 Hey man, don't talk about the Supreme crew like that.

[chillclinton87]

there is a spot at the school next to shaw park in washington dc if i remember correctly (it`s been a while 2012)- like a long three stair covered in art/ grafiti- you have a kneehigh wall after the landing, just like the big stairs at martin place in aus.

i remember theotis having a bones ad doing a bigspin heelflip down it and ellington had an impossible down it wich must have been deathwish video or shake junt vid?

theotis ad was shot fisheye and it looked like you had a good ride away till the wall after the landing.
so when i saw that spot in person it was a little different: the wall was super close to the landing, so if you had wheelbite and flew forward youd slam right into that wall. on the top of the stairs there was a huuuge crash of maybe an inch in lenght and hight that was bondoed nothing wider than an exact 149 truck width.

also rough as fuck and washington was humid as hell in september

[cheetahsheets]

LA-surprisingly easy to skate, tons of amazing concrete. The courthouse is one of the funnest places ever to skate but the actual courthouse itself is really fucking tall in person, I managed an impossible up the fucker and could prolly do a few other things up it but damn, and also Venice beach park is a hoot when it’s not insanely crowded. The picnic tables are easy to Ollie over, prolly kickflip over too even though I didn’t try it, but other tricks would be a bitch and a half prolly minus 180s.

SF-the Hills are no fucking joke whatsoever. Third and army is the most fun park I’ve ever been to by far, and people don’t realize how fucking terrifying the curved rail/ledge is, I did some slappy tricks on the rail/ledge and damn near died with my foot going in between the rail and flipping over the side which is like a 4-6 foot drop. The manual pads there are fun and easy to do suciu style quick foot shit on.

AZ-the Sedona skatepark has the most beautiful view in the fucking country for any skatepark, hard to skate but worth the backdrop. Flagstaff has some fucking gems littered throughout it. Phoenix is overblown and kind of meh.

Vegas-lots of random dope street skating to do around the strip.

Kansas City-lots of little parks that are fun to mess with. That rail that Ishod fs tails there, and Malto and JT did tricks on is FUCKING HUGE. easily the most terrifying of any singular rail I’ve ever seen outside of the Dane burman rail.

Chicago- the spot on the water near the museums they fucked up in elementality volume 1 is a fucking riot, many years since I’ve been but a fucking blast.

New Orleans- singularly the least amount of spots I’ve ever fucking seen in a major city, but that spot where Louis Armstrong’s park is could really be skated if someone had the rocks to step to it.

Nashville-shitloads of fucking spots, and the like legislative plaza is easily one of the coolest plaza spots in the entire country. Since they have gentrified it in recent years they really have gotten some nice spots in those areas.

Cincinnati-has some cool spots, that one bank to ledge spot is a fucking blast.

Philadelphia-the burman rail is absolutely fucking insane, and FDR is prolly the hardest transition park in the country to skate outside of Washington street. Love the tiny crusty prefab parks as well in and around Philly.

Boston-maybe the best singular city in the country for street skating, so many ledges are already fucking waxed for you, and just so many rad little spots all over.

Salt Lake City- tons of fantastic fucking parks all over the city, and just a ton of shit to skate in general around downtown salt lake.

Denver- such a fun fucking city, tons of parks in the Denver metro/fort Collins/boulder area. LoDo(not the park) is a blast to fucking skate but be weary of fucking heroin junkies and meth heads.

[Smokie Brewton]

LA-surprisingly easy to skate, tons of amazing concrete. The courthouse is one of the funnest places ever to skate but the actual courthouse itself is really fucking tall in person, I managed an impossible up the fucker and could prolly do a few other things up it but damn, and also Venice beach park is a hoot when it’s not insanely crowded. The picnic tables are easy to Ollie over, prolly kickflip over too even though I didn’t try it, but other tricks would be a bitch and a half prolly minus 180s.

With your Dylan-esque kickflips that should be no problem.

[cheetahsheets]

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LA-surprisingly easy to skate, tons of amazing concrete. The courthouse is one of the funnest places ever to skate but the actual courthouse itself is really fucking tall in person, I managed an impossible up the fucker and could prolly do a few other things up it but damn, and also Venice beach park is a hoot when it’s not insanely crowded. The picnic tables are easy to Ollie over, prolly kickflip over too even though I didn’t try it, but other tricks would be a bitch and a half prolly minus 180s.

[close]

With your Dylan-esque kickflips that should be no problem.

Why would having Dylan-esque kickflips have anything to do with the height of them, that makes no sense. Mechanics/shaping and verticality are mutually exclusive lol. I have an ok vertical, I can dunk when I’m in prime shape and my body fat is relatively low and my muscle is high. Idk if you know but to propel yourself 3 feet in the air on a pure vertical not on a board, if you do the math that comes out to roughly having to be able to leg press 3 times your body weight. So if you say weigh 200 lbs that means to jump 3 feet in the air from bottom of foot to ground while being completely erect requires roughly a 600 lb leg press. Where as say if you lost 40 lbs and weighed 160 it would only require a 480 lb leg press. Now with an Ollie you get to suck your legs up so it’s your vertical plus however long your legs are minus the nonconservative friction that comes with the tail impulse function of the Ollie. Fucking come at me with something better G.

[Smokie Brewton]

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LA-surprisingly easy to skate, tons of amazing concrete. The courthouse is one of the funnest places ever to skate but the actual courthouse itself is really fucking tall in person, I managed an impossible up the fucker and could prolly do a few other things up it but damn, and also Venice beach park is a hoot when it’s not insanely crowded. The picnic tables are easy to Ollie over, prolly kickflip over too even though I didn’t try it, but other tricks would be a bitch and a half prolly minus 180s.

[close]

With your Dylan-esque kickflips that should be no problem.

[close]

Why would having Dylan-esque kickflips have anything to do with the height of them, that makes no sense. Mechanics/shaping and verticality are mutually exclusive lol. I have an ok vertical, I can dunk when I’m in prime shape and my body fat is relatively low and my muscle is high. Idk if you know but to propel yourself 3 feet in the air on a pure vertical not on a board, if you do the math that comes out to roughly having to be able to leg press 3 times your body weight. So if you say weigh 200 lbs that means to jump 3 feet in the air from bottom of foot to ground while being completely erect requires roughly a 600 lb leg press. Where as say if you lost 40 lbs and weighed 160 it would only require a 480 lb leg press. Now with an Ollie you get to suck your legs up so it’s your vertical plus however long your legs are minus the nonconservative friction that comes with the tail impulse function of the Ollie. Fucking come at me with something better G.

This was exactly the response I wanted.

[cheetahsheets]

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LA-surprisingly easy to skate, tons of amazing concrete. The courthouse is one of the funnest places ever to skate but the actual courthouse itself is really fucking tall in person, I managed an impossible up the fucker and could prolly do a few other things up it but damn, and also Venice beach park is a hoot when it’s not insanely crowded. The picnic tables are easy to Ollie over, prolly kickflip over too even though I didn’t try it, but other tricks would be a bitch and a half prolly minus 180s.

[close]

With your Dylan-esque kickflips that should be no problem.

[close]

Why would having Dylan-esque kickflips have anything to do with the height of them, that makes no sense. Mechanics/shaping and verticality are mutually exclusive lol. I have an ok vertical, I can dunk when I’m in prime shape and my body fat is relatively low and my muscle is high. Idk if you know but to propel yourself 3 feet in the air on a pure vertical not on a board, if you do the math that comes out to roughly having to be able to leg press 3 times your body weight. So if you say weigh 200 lbs that means to jump 3 feet in the air from bottom of foot to ground while being completely erect requires roughly a 600 lb leg press. Where as say if you lost 40 lbs and weighed 160 it would only require a 480 lb leg press. Now with an Ollie you get to suck your legs up so it’s your vertical plus however long your legs are minus the nonconservative friction that comes with the tail impulse function of the Ollie. Fucking come at me with something better G.

[close]

This was exactly the response I wanted.

Well good then, well good, I’m glad I could please you. I’m a good pleaser.

[Yu Dum]

I’ve never wanted to kook someone more than once in a day, but Cheetahshits is making me wish that were an option.

[Tuff Lover]

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2:40

[close]

Is that spot still around? I've always wanted to skate there.

Yeah still there.probably even crustier than the last time i was there. Last time i was there, that stage -bank with stairs- didn't have the wood anymore

[SatanicPanic]

Seventh st school in San Pedro was as fun as I imagined but I just did tricks on the hip

[Glurmpz]

This is at a back entrance to Fairfax high school in LA, I walked past it after parking my car while staying with a friend who lives right there. The bump is crusty and sucks and this is gnarly. I like when you just happen upon a 'famous' spot.

[DotGuru]

Everything at emb was either smaller or bigger than I thought.
Lockwood tables are knee high.
Courthouse stage is mid thigh.
Pier 7 was as it seemed but crazy busy with pedestrians and all.
Fort Miley is nice. Never a bust for me.

[pedro_mayn]

I'll echo others in saying that Barca lived up to my expectations, pick pockets and all, too. My most recent trip to the new plaza spot by the leisure centre is a dream. The locals are safe as fuck, too.

South bank seemed a lot harder when I first went in 2014, like the ledges were round and the banks were actually, fairly steep.

Did anyone skate the old Southbank ledges when they were near the Shard? They were pretty good to skate. I believe they have been moved now.

Not famous to fellow Slap posters by all means I know, but Bute square in Cardiff was pretty disappointing to a teenage me after watching footy of it for years. The benches were rough, the floor was rough (and mossy) and the smackheads were in full force. However I didn't skate there in the early 00s, so I missed out. It has received a bit of a revival, though.

Cyprus, oh man...the plazas and in general the spots there are dope. I only went on a holiday with my folks and ended up staying near the fountain spot in Protaras (Haslam skates in 9Incher). They were pretty cool to skate. I never went to the main plaza in Nicosia, but every spot I found was dope to skate! Nice floor, good ledges. The trees coming out of the pavement near Ayia Napa were basically forming a 'natural' mish mash of kicker/wallies, which were fun to blast out of.

Hoping to do NY this year, which I'm glad to see some people have posted a bit about.

[GollyIamGully]

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Lincoln City Oregon is way crazier than I thought it was going to be. I went seeing videos of Raybourn skating the snake run and videos from the Beauty and the Beast trip and I thought I could handle it. One snapped wrist later I realized my mistake.

[close]

Lincoln City is my favorite park, I try to go at least once or twice a year. That being said it is fucked gnarly and some of the shit that’s gone down there is literally unbelievable. Rip Ride Rally was also really fun.

This was the first park I went to when I moved to Oregon, and is one of my favorites anywhere! It is a super intimidating and gnarly place though.

[j....soy.....]

Early burnside was a joke.....super gnarly and the locals shredded it so hard....I watched. 

[Fred Gerwer Frank Gall]

-First skated Burnside in 96 I think. It was everything I wanted and feared it would be.
-Buena Vista Pool wasn't as deep as I thought it would be but was hard to get anything going in. 2006.
-Derby was way more fun than anticipated. Mid 90s and mid 2000s.
-Brooklyn Banks were super fun circa mid 2000s. Skating up and down Manhattan in general was way more fruitful than I thought it would be. I spent a day finding random spots everywhere but the highlight was blasting through rush hour traffic back to the hotel. Also, Gonz sighting!
-Early 90s sand gaps and tootsie roll curbs at Venice/ SM was a wonderful good time.
-Modern Venice skatepark is dogs shit except the little curved 1/4 and sloped ledge outside the park.
-Bristol Lloyds big four was an easier ollie than I was led to believe. I think I hit that in the mid-90s when I was in peak stunt mode though. Did it first try with a cracked board.
-Morfa Stadium Vert ramp Swansea, South Wales, at the peak of the vert scene in late 80s early 90s was way bigger than I imagined. I was 14 or so when I first dropped in and grinded it. My brother was 11. We'd force ourselves to skate that beast but never really progressed much on it.
Daytona Stone Edge was the first concrete round wall I ever skated. Had no concept of how to carve or pump corners. Some local surfer clued me in. So rad. 1990.
-Spent the summer of 96 in Santa Barbara. Skating UCSB and the Powell skate zone both more than lived up to my expectation.
-Stockwell/ Brixton Beach is way funner than I thought it would be. I go there every time I pass through London. I've been to South Bank but never bothered to skate... I dunno, I can't perform for tourists... didn't seem like a scene I'd fit in. New stuff looks fun though.
-I've skated most of the Oregon parks worth a shit and nothing can prepare you for them. Like others have said about Lincoln City. Go there, think about what has gone down and see what you can come up with. The cool thing with Grindline and Dreamland though, you can ease into it having fun. Find the lines, get comfortable, piece everything together and then start risking your life, bit by bit....
-Any Jersey Barrier spot will inevitably crush your dreams. You see it on instagram and convince yourself of an inevitable front rock or tail block and reality hits before all four wheels have even made contact with the make-shift tranny.
-I'm sure there are some other spots to ponder but this nostalgia trip is making me want to skate and its been the wettest January in years...

[grindr]

Anyone skate Pulaski here? I really wanna how is it there, Bobby makes it look so fun.

pulaski is very fun. ton of ledges and a ton of flat on the stage. the ledges are hard to grind though. i have no idea how anyone skated that ledge to three stair.