August 18, 2015

Top Five TC Wee Park Tricks Ever*

Twin Cities public skateparks have been really quite bad for a long time but that finally seems to be changing. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is finally updating its forgettable skatepark system, lots of far-flung suburbs have their nice and shiny parks, not to mention the Front Street Plaza, St. Paul's most important trump card when it comes to its twin city. It's been a long winter waiting for all of this to come around.

But let's not get it twisted; me, you, we came up skating shitty wee park skateparks. We kind of liked it. Good parks churn out padded children and the all-terrain dudes du jour, while a proper, no-frills wee park creates something much more interesting. They make skaters excel at the awkward--nollie heelflip crooked grinds on round-coping ledges, long grinds on unsuitable quarterpipes, inhuman leaps--things that actually prepare the young and inexperienced for real life in the streets.

We kind of love wee parks. And as the metro slowly creeps into the modern skatepark world, let's not forget from whence we came, forced to do awesome things with the middling tools cities half-assedly gave us. Let us remember the top five TC we park tricks ever, and embrace them.

Darrell Pelton at Shoreview

More than a decade and a half ago (likely 16 years!) Shoreview's freshie Trueride skatepark was one of, if not the only show in town, and people flocked to it from all over. In the course of another life, I've even told the then-presiding/still-current mayor of Shoreview how much we loved that joint. Darrell's move showed up in Midopoly, it was filmed artfully and it is likely the most difficult/well-executed tricks done on those largely 50-50ed across and down ledges that dot the Midwest.

Dan Narloch at St. Anthony

Another of the original parks, St. Anthony's tier 1 spot just received a breath of life after Jammin' Jay and Woody gave it some new sheet metal. The sunken ramps were to the point of nearly un-skateable; now the ancient asphalt is the biggest issue. The channel grind Narloch does must be the envy of everyone who can't sufficiently backside smith anything and generally strains credulity, though its doubtful he knows much better. The Fulton clip this was in is 7-years-old.

Gregg Clover at Elliot Park

MPRB's least miss of a swing, Elliot Park provides the needy with something to skate without having to go to the far-flung reaches of the city. The layout was never anything that anyone who actually skated would think was a good idea, but they've since given it more room to breath. Clover's crooked grind, as seen in Boondoggle, is the wonderful end result of warming up at the same spot way too many times.

Jamiel Nowparvar at SLP

During the final summer of filming for Weekend Warriors we got into the habit of filming until the wee hours of the morning, from which springs the bright idea to film something amazing by lighting up the wee park at midnight. Jamiel did this pretty quickly, of course.

Steve Nesser at Merriam Park

Literally a gorilla fighting a trick in a phone booth, Nesser's frontside ollie is the sort of shit that'd be only a wee park myth if we didn't have the digital proof above. The mind slows as one attempts to understand A) getting speed for that in cage-like Merriam B) hitting the air breaks or whatever for casual re-entry into that landing ramp and C) the hippie jump after:
*I came up with five tricks that I could plausibly find on Youtube, I'd love to know about more.

23 comments:

Paul Jensen said...

kooky edit forsure but Kennys BsFlip at LC at 1:37 is insane, especially considering the complete lack of run-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnIh3zJBfCs

Mighty Roll said...

Nice article, good choices as well! Clovers crooks was mindboggling at the time I hadnt even seen that as an option (still dont, who am I kidding). Also I had literally forgotton St anthony park even existed. One to look for- Corey Millets Kf and Fs flip at Mendota (out of bank over rail to flat) were super sick if you can find em.

Wylie T. said...

Are you kiddin' me?!
What it's all about is Chad Benson's fs-bluntslide in the park-section of Open Iris, which took place on the flat-ledge atop the euro-gap at the old 3rd Lair. The trick felt electric, given how fast and connected it was.

Blaine Dirt said...

Old 3rd Lair doesn't exactly qualify as a wee park.

The worst of the wee parks, and somehow one of the only concrete parks for years to come. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4xhjB8Yt0

wheelbite said...

I've always been partial to Bottineau. This philmerphil edit is cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N7ph1x08O0


Also didn't Seth ollie over that whole guard-rail at Elliott? I seem to remember seeing a photo of it.

noclue said...

Tim Huey @ BP

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman said...

so killer

Wylie T. said...

So I didn't match the qualification.
But speaking of such, tell me this: did Gregg Clover really do a fs-crooked, or did he actually do a fs-nosegrind?
Whatever the case, Transworld editor-in-chief Jamie Owens would make sure to label it a fs-nosegrind, along with a comment like: "uber-extra-jedi-surging dexterity Gregg Clover executing here in this fs-nosegrind."
(Yeah . . . as if, Mr. Owens!)

platinumseagulls said...

While I don't actually believe in "overcrooks," the only thing Clover's doing is a crooked grind. Same thing with this Mike Carrol front crook.

Jonathan Richman said...

Mike you're shit is all fucked up. He is coming at the rail FS, dude! I do agree, F an overcrook, but Gregg isn't doing a crook, he is doing a nosegrind.

platinumseagulls said...

Richman, I'm treating the thing like a ledge, ala the Carroll photo linked to above (and I know you aren't calling that a backside nosegrind or whatever...). At the very least we should say he's coming straight on at the thing, and thus, using Occam's Skateboard Trick Naming Razor...still gotta be a crooks. I'm entrenched.

wheelbite said...

nose bonk*

pete said...

Wheelbite, yes i remember sets ollie over the bar as well. maybe in some old benji edit.

pete said...

There is no footage of this, but this guy who wore raver pants and slipknot t shirts at front power ollied off of the fence to flat once. I'd guess this was around between 2003-2006

Hani said...

Yup, that sounds about right for 2003-2006 front...

Wylie T. said...

Back to the fs-crooked or -nosegrind question:
First, I can't believe I didn't annoy y'all by asking it.
Two, although I always like Jonathan Richman's name and comments, his calling the trick a fs-nosegrind rings like the indifference of Transworld Magazine.
Three, Transworld can seriously be so careless on such topics. I've seen fs-crookeds so tweaked that that they might've been a fs-noseblunt, which Transworld yet labeled as a fs-nosegrind.
(Mr. Owens, you have the six-figure salary and corner office, right?)

Skyler Meredith said...

Loved merriam park back in the day

Mighty Roll said...

Heres an old Merriam part for ya skylah...
http://youtu.be/wyCb0Q1zbqA

Wylie T. said...

The Merriam part was quite pleasant!
But its styles could've bored me - were Elijah, Chuck, and Casey not present. As for the others, I'm working on accepting them as they are.

Skyler Meredith said...

Thanks for the montage, I enjoyed the nostalgia.

Wylie T. said...

We have to get this site up and running again!
So riddle me this: how heterosexual was Jeff Bauman's skating in Midwest Marauders?
(My answer, not yours: it really felt a bit too heterosexual, even if you observe the fact that Bauman used lines to diversify his part. And I remain the strangest straight skater you've ever met, so feel lucky.)

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