Hat Trick!!!

The "street" course at Old Fourth Ward

Here is the other part of the "street" course. This is the part
that is impossible to approach without starting at the flow bowl.

     I just got back from an incredible Old Man Skate Jam with my bro Doug. I took him over to the Old Fourth Ward Skatepark that just went up a couple of weeks ago. This place is strange. I hate to complain about "Atlanta's first skatepark" but they got really sloppy on the street section. This is a real downer for the kids who skate street (which is the majority of kids under 25 or 30). As one kid said to me last time I was there "It looks like they spent all the money on the bowls and pool... then just didn't care about the street course." Unfortunately, I think he was right.

     Everything is super tight and difficult to approach. In order to get a decent run at the street course, you actually have to skate around the edge of the beginner bowl and then skate up a large bank, it's pretty weird. I have a theory on this. Old skaters from the 1980s are building skateparks... therefore they are focusing on ramp and bowl skating even though these seem to be less popular for the younger generation. It's all good though because I have personally learned to love bowl skating... and besides, what is better for street skating than actual street right? As my friend Doug pointed out today , it seems weird that the city (who wants to keep kids from skating on its streets and infrastructure) would build a park with an awkward street section. I guess they don't really care in Atlanta since they've long since welded skate stoppers on every ledge and handrail that was enjoyed a generation ago. I always thought skate stoppers were funny. Growing up I was always told, "We're worried about "liability" that's why we can't let you skate here... sorry guys." So the logical step then is to put screws and weld knobs onto handrails and ledges? OK, so now if I do try the rail it's going to kill me... or better yet some goofy kid (or adult) goes to "buttslide" a rail and ends up... well you get the picture. It's truly laughable. Liability.

Here is "The Racker" complete with a faux ski sign explaining the park's
skill levels.

  
     Enough ranting though, the good news is that I love bowl skating so this new park is incredible for me. And better yet, this place built in the most realistic handrail I've ever seen at a skatepark. It looks so legit that you can't even tell if it's meant to be skated. It's amazing. It has a sidewalk approach (complete with spaced cracks), A crack in front of it, and even has the height of a real handrail. I mean this handrail is the kind that you would find in front of your local bank, school, or police station (no joke), etc. Because of this I added this rail to my Handrail Hitlist page on the site. The good news of course (for me) is that I landed a nice backside boardslide on it today (yeah yeah, its the only trick I can do on a handrail so what). This is also why I cleverly (or not so much) named this post "hat trick" as well. Since skating handrails again these last few months, I have now hit three different handrails. Twigs in Griffin, Twigs the Second in Kennasaw, and The Racker in Atlanta. I call it The Racker of course because I saw a kid actually rack himself (landing your testicals on the rail) just last week. Like I mentioned in my handrail post earlier, handrails are mostly mental. And seriously, if you want to get psyched out about a rail, just watch someone hit their junk on one. That makes everything scarrier (or funnier if your watching Americas Funniest Home Videos).

The "Blue Square" flow bowl. This is the highlight of the park for me.
The transition is fairly mellow and very smooth, not to mention the half
 pool closest to the viewer complete with the beloved tile.

     Now on to the jewel of the park, and no doubt where all the funding landed, the bowls. There are three bowl areas: beginner, medium, and expert. And just to make this place a little cheezier, they use ski symbols to let you know where you are skating. Not to be too much of a hater, but it's a good thing they put these in Atlanta because if they had ski symbols in Griffin I'm sure no one would get it (although the tell-tale sign that you are still the South is that the easy level is marked by an orange circle instead of a green one). I mean this is just cruel to do to people in the middle of June. Thanks for reminding me of pleasantly snowboarding while its 90 degrees with 85% humidity and no breeze, not to mention the fact that the bathroom and waterfountain exist but do not actually function.

Here is the "Black Diamond" pool It's really fun, but very steep.

     
     Anyways, It's a bit creepy at times becuase I'm still not used to the amount of vert in some places, particularly the pool. It has the same dimensions as the pool at Brook Run, but no doubt things changed in construction somewhere. Somebody is lying because this pool has much more vert than Brook Run. Anyways, this pretty much sums up my day. It was awesome, I got to skate with another Old Man from the good old days, and we tore it up... or something like that.

Getting a a little bit of tile in the shallow end of the pool.

My buddy Doug getting up into the cradle and enjoying some flow bowl.

Another picture of the Pool. Deep end on the far
side and shallow on the left and right.

Doug earning himself some 'street cred' at MARTA.

There is also some excellent graffiti underneath the Freedom Parkway
Bridge that I walk under to get to the park.

More beautiful artwork.

One more. I just can't help myself. Also, if you're lucky, when you take
photos of this, there is a homeless guy under the bridge who will scream
"Hey mom, I'm homeless!" and laugh hysterically.