Your Experiences with Skating PVC

[Tear Up a Trick]

I understand this topic is akin to a thread on "Your Experiences Rewinding VHS Tapes," but I thought it would be worth a brief discussion.

Have you ever skated a PVC rail?  A quarterpipe or halfpipe with PVC coping?

Did you make a DIY back in the day using PVC?

Do any parks still use this stuff?

Did you wax it?  Slide on it with rails / grind with copers while it was waxed? 

Did you wilson yourself into the hospital?  Or did you eat a mouthful when you were expecting it to slide and it stuck?

Did the Animal Chin ramp have PVC coping?

Did PVC make sense at the time or were you like "what are we doing here?"

These are not important questions.

[cky enthusiast]

zinging out and corpsing the deck in a parking lot

the year is 2005

[vhsfisheye]

I have a mini with pvc coping and it’s hard to grind but it can be done, waxing pvc doesn’t work well I’m my opinion it kinda just melts into the pubs and chips off while you grind, glossy paint helped a bit but eventually chipped off pretty bad aswell

[IpathCats]

every box/rail ive skated with PVC slid well from what I remember, it's been a while. QP's on the other hand didn't grind well.

Edit: I don't suggest PVC unless it's just lying around for free. There's no benefit.

[skegleg]

My dad built me a 4x4with two pvc pipes on top as a rail like 2 weeks after I got my first real deck.....needless to say that thing slid so fucking fast I quickly became a boardslide master.

[Chavo]

Yes to almost all. People used it because it was cheap and readily available at any construction site.

I think it was well known to be inferior. Some of the more well-built '80s backyard ramps used steel coping.

[Mantracker]

slides well, grinds meh

[backinaction]

I used it in the late 80s. 

Doubled it up with a 2x4 in between for a rail that was super fast and deadly. The only "trick" that was done was to try to keep upright while sliding at 89mph.  I think we were using rails at the time as well.

We had it as coping on a couple 2.5' tall, 6' wide quarters.  It was good for boardslides, but not for grinds - and it broke when the temps dropped. 

The only benefit was that our drill bits were too dull to get through steel pipe - and the only steel we had was rusted anyway.  Or galvanized.  Galvenized coping sucked as well.

[Mike Oxwelling]

I understand this topic is akin to a thread on "Your Experiences Rewinding VHS Tapes," but I thought it would be worth a brief discussion.

Have you ever skated a PVC rail?  A quarterpipe or halfpipe with PVC coping?

Did you make a DIY back in the day using PVC?

Do any parks still use this stuff?

Did you wax it?  Slide on it with rails / grind with copers while it was waxed? 

Did you wilson yourself into the hospital?  Or did you eat a mouthful when you were expecting it to slide and it stuck?

Did the Animal Chin ramp have PVC coping?

Did PVC make sense at the time or were you like "what are we doing here?"

These are not important questions.

Have you ever skated a PVC rail?  A quarterpipe or halfpipe with PVC coping?

 All of the above.

Did you make a DIY back in the day using PVC?

Yes.

Do any parks still use this stuff?

Yes.

Did you wax it?  Slide on it with rails / grind with copers while it was waxed? 

No wax.   Wax wasn't used pretty much until after the PVC overusage fades away.


Did you wilson yourself into the hospital?  Or did you eat a mouthful when you were expecting it to slide and it stuck?

Are you sure you know the definition of Wilson? 

Did the Animal Chin ramp have PVC coping?

The video is crystal clear on youtube.

Did PVC make sense at the time or were you like "what are we doing here?"

It was what everyone used at the time.  Once you figured the slide out there was no question of needing to be elsewhere.

Do you live in NY?

[The real veganshawn]

Super slippery, breaks eventually.

[layzieyez]

I'm kind of surprised people aren't making portable pole jams with PVC. Bring a sack of cement to weigh it down.

[throwaway187]

My dad built a double sided pvc quarter pipe in the early 90s. I have footage of Phil Shao RIP and McKenney killing it. I can link the footage.

[fredgallSOTY]

all bad

[banksandledges]

It's fine till it breaks. 

[SneakySecrets]

I get a little depressed thinking about skating a PVC pipe.  And then thinking of all the squirrelly boardslides I did on them.

[DarthDingusMaximus]

It's fine till it breaks.

[MexicanSpaniard]

If you actually lock in on a pvc grind it makes no sound and you can't feel anything, you're just going forward still

[yapple dapple]

My friend Ron, back in high school had a perfect five foot mini. However it had PVC copping. As said before. It made no sound and grinds felted dead. As the queens on men on film would say, "hated it!".

[Nosebleed-section]

Got some double sided pvc curb height sliders that are like 10 feet long and they are a hit anytime I bring them around. I fully endorse this obstacle

[Frank]

the mini ramp i learned to skate transition on had was pvc. it was shaped like a mini halfpipe, so very short flat, kind of steep. it was super slippery. one of the first things everyone learned to do, before we would dare to rock to fakie or even roll, was to powerslide in the transition and launch out from the side. often someone would eat shit from slipping out sideways before the launch. through the years the cracks between the panels became wider to the point where you had to be sort of light on your toes to roll over them. the coping was always almost flush with the deck and transition, but recessed even further until it was almost sunk in. hard to grind, since nothing would stick out.

i haven't been in my hometown for years, not sure if that thing still stands. last time i skated it must have been 6 years ago and it felt gnarly, in as not worth trying stuff on it just to say i did something.

the best thing about learning to skate on that thing was that it prepared me for slippery wooden ramps quite well.
other than that i'd give pvc a hard pass anyday and would have rather have had an actual sick mini ramp in my town.

[Ray C. Usery]

My dad built a double sided pvc quarter pipe in the early 90s. I have footage of Phil Shao RIP and McKenney killing it. I can link the footage.

Please do