Fiftytwo Skatepark

Despite the temps outside hitting the 60s, the old man's session went off bigger than ANY we've had all year last night! Kevin Marks and Herb Hogen, our dedicated, designated old guy organizers kicked it into gear and brought out a huge turnout of lifers for the session- so many that they were spilling out of the bowl and taking over the street course as well. It was great to see them going off and the energy in the park last night was awesome. The smell on the other hand was not quite as awesome- lots of old bros sweating it out made for some serious funk, but it was worth it to see the smiles on everyone's faces. Rippers like Kolby Zugg and Keenan Quan were going back to back with young lifers like Travis Bradford and Ray Hertz for some serious bowl destruction. The two Ricks were holding their own, which means some serious smith grinds were locked and loaded and Randy Katen was feeding off of the punk rock and tossing classic tailblocks like no other. You could hear the hoots and hollers all the way in the office with the door closed! Garrett Courtney kept the street course locked down with tons of the older rippers coming down from the bowl for some action on the street course too, which is a rare treat to see. 

Everyone in the building was making the session one to remember!

Hope next week the boys can keep the same energy going because it was one of the best sessions yet at Fiftytwo- from beginner to veteran the old guys were there supporting each other and keeping the positive energy high. Lets hope the younger skaters catch on.

Its getting closer to winter every week, and we're still not seeing a huge percentage of the local skaters in the park, which has put a serious strain on our ability to keep it going! We're still in it till the bitter end, but at the rate we're going that could be a lot sooner than kids might realize. But these days the park is sitting at a comfortable 55 degrees while the weather goes back and forth from below zero to the mid sixties! 

A huge thank you goes out to all the skaters, parents and friends that showed up for our one year anniversary jam. We appreciated seeing each and every one of you- without your support and smiles we wouldn't be here. The one thing we've learned over the past year is that with owning a skatepark, as in all things in life, you've got a lot more friends when you're up than when you're down, so to all those who came out and helped us see the new year in, we owe you a sincere THANK YOU. Hopefully we'll be here for a second anniversary, and we'll see you all then too!

We had a rad turnout for our anniversary jam last weekend, which was pretty much dominated by Fiftytwo locals- first in every category went to one of our team members, again validating the fact that skating an indoor park pushes your progression! Take this one in: In the little guy division, the winner was a girl who has been skating for exactly one year. Rayla Marema started skating when we opened the skatepark, and in that time she's gotten better than kids in her division that have been skating for years- putting down powerhouse runs in the bowl and the street. In the older divisions, the Morans skating made kids look silly as they skated everything in front of them with power and speed. It was an impressive sight, and I head more comments about their skating than anything else all day. 

On the negative side, I've also heard older skaters talk trash about kids that skate Fiftytwo, as if they aren't "core" enough or wouldn't be able to hang at an outdoor park. Lets just pretend for a minute that these kinds of statements are even close to true- that said, shouldn't the kids that skated Mobash all summer and think of themselves as "true" skaters be beating the Fiftytwo kids cold in contests? Since they're so gnarly!?

Well, flat out, they aren't.

Having an indoor park like Fiftytwo, and an outdoor skatepark like Mobash would be like a a wish come true for most skaters, and despite what the haters think, these kids are getting better and better by skating them both.

Missoula's skate scene has the potential to be one of the best in the world, and I say that with all confidence that the positive influence of skaters like the ones I saw come out for the Anniversary Jam can help shape the scene for the future skaters. Supporting your scene is what we've always been about, and folks like Chris Bacon and the Edge of the World guys have been there too- from throwing contests and events to handing down our used decks and helping a little guy drop in for the first time, Missoula's raddest skaters are the ones who remember that we all used to be beginners, and that skateboarding is way too much fun to turn into some jockland cliquefest where tearing the other guy down is the way to get ahead.

Lucky for us out here at Fiftytwo, there are great kids that are feeding off of the positivity of the community and are getting better every day! With a little luck and hard work, the kids that are ripping it up here at the park have the best chance of making it somewhere with their skating, and that's what we're down to help them achieve. As for the ones that talk shit , they ain't going anywhere. See you in ten years when you used to skate. 

Its one week before Halloween, and we're still waiting on you to come out and skate! We've got some seriously rad events lined up for winter, so now is the time to get in and get your membership re-upped. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and again, and again. It is up to you to make your scene the best it can be. Participate! The more you do, them more we can do for you. If you're too lazy, too cool, or just too dang stubborn to do your part, ain't nobody going to want to help you. 'Cept maybe your mom, but even she will think you're a loser.

Halloween overnighter. Anniversary party. Hometown Heros. Game of S.K.A.T.E. series. All coming your way. Time to change your scene means get involved and get Montana on the map. Or not, I mean there are some pretty cool things going  on on myspace.

Lots of people go on a last burst of summer on Labor Day weekend. Last trip to the lake, barbeque, things like that. For me, that meant getting out to the skatepark early and doing some last cleaning of the summer. Yay!

August meant an infestation of bugs of all sorts in the warehouse, which kept things interesting for sure. I now know which cleaners kill off gnats, which ones maim spiders, which ones harm house flies and which ones grass hoppers just like the taste of. No matter the bug, I've battled them and come out victorious. Except for one: Bella the bird remains living, despite my best efforts a neglect and abuse. (Not really, don't go all PETA on me.)

Anyway, we're up and open this Labor Day so come on out and skate! I promise, the park is clean, cool and ready to shred. And happily bug free. 

I just got some serious industrial cleaners in the mail from a lady whose husband owns a cleaning supply company. Also, we got a big box from Girl Skateboards in. I'm really not sure which I'm more excited about!

Well, for anyone that has been in the park in the past few days this won't come as news, but for the rest of the world, I just took down the bank to bank steep wall on the 3 foot loading dock, and replaced it with a curb thing. Its tiny, only 6 inches tall and five feet wide, but it is a lot of fun and changes it up a bit. The bank to bank was fun for some, but a little too steep for a lot of skaters, so we took it out with plans to make some new fun obstacles in the coming weeks.

The street course has been running well lately, with a few new additions such as boxes from Garrett that really add a new dimension to the grindable options out there, and some other small changes, but I still am looking at making a rather drastic change in the near future...

With so few customers these days, I should be able to blast the actual construction out when I finalize the plans.

In the end, I'm sure it will generate some groans and hatred, like all the recent additions to the park! Seriously.

Anyway, other than the new cleaning products and Girl stuff, we're rolling deep in Anti Hero, Spitfire and more, and looking at a really good Fall and Winter schedule of events as well. Hopefully things pick up and we'll be able to pay the rent this month and make it until the snow falls- if not, you Missoula skaters have no one to blame but yourselves!

In the past few weeks we've had visitors from Calgary, Portland, Santa Cruz and Arizona all blown away by the cheap rates and rad skatepark we're holding down here in Montana, and each group was disheartened to hear how little support we've been getting from the locals. We're still here for you, so hopefully we'll make it until you run out of summer and still need your skating!

Speaking of awesome...

Ian Graham's recent visit did wonders to boost my morale personally, and the support of the few kids that have been loyal to the park has been a real treat. Garrett has been dropping by on the regular so we're getting some momentum for new obstacles, new contests and new motivation to keep on going strong. Some of the local graffiti kids have done some new pieces, and we're looking at FINALLY painting over the horrible damage James Reeves did to the back wall by the bowl. That kid has about as much artistic talent as my two year old neighbor, only she doesn't have as fragile an ego. Oh well, I ain't got no paint skills either. But building new obstacles, that I can do. 

I'm thinking new manual pad/ledge/thingy...

Day in day out, you gotta keep the park clean. Lately I've been experimenting with different floor cleaners for the cement, which by the way ain't easy. I hear it all the time from skaters visiting the park: they slip out and then it's all, "Dude, this floor is so slick!" Well let me fill you in on the how and why: You got dirty wheels, lots of them, schralping around leaving waxy, grubby skids all over. Skaters use a lot of wax, and that wax has to end up somewhere. Usually it is on the floor. Then you got your dirty shoes, and on and on.

It might surprise those same skaters to know that the park is swept and mopped on a regular basis- every two days it gets a full floor and ramp cleaning starting with sweeping  and ending with a mop down from the top down. (Except the bowl, that thing is getting dirty. But thats cause no one has used it in months. The kids that do are ripping, by the way. And learning a lot of tricks...)

So! Back to what I'm using lately for cleaning. First there is the old standby: Bleach. Stinks. Can make the floors slippy. But it cuts grease like crazy, so theres that. Toss in some standard Ajax for some abrasives and it works ok. 

Another test item has been the industrial floor cleaners available at big home box stores. These generally suck, but they work just well enough for a daily cleaning. But what I'm getting at here is an INDUSTRIAL cleaning. Scrub that shit, dawg. For that, I'm still looking. Any suggestions?

Oh and Bon Philips has been stopping by on the regular now that the Mobash skate camps are all done, and he's been killing the mini ramp! Switch 50-50 yesterday. Fun fun fun! We're talking about some changes at the park, but with no customers, shit is tight!

See you soon and get out here and let me know your cleaning tips.

WOW! We were blown away after an e-mail from our boy Jamie at Girl Skateboards informed us that a shot of the skatepark from the Beauty and the Beast 2 tour stop was the featured image of the week on Crailtap. We're so stoked and honored to have had them visit, and in response to the amount of gear we got handed down to us from the pros and what have you, we've decided to pass it along with a Mini Ramp jam where we'll give away some of the gear from the trip. Yep, we're idiots. Anyway, check it out and come skate the mini while the weather is good!

We've been having a lot of fun collecting up the photos from the Beauty and the Beast tour stop at Mobash and Fiftytwo a few weeks back, and by the looks of things, Crailtap has been too. So far we've seen half a dozen photos of the park in Rick Howard's column, as well as a some great shots of the guys crashing around the park on their twitter, "@therealcrailtap."  (If you aren't on the Twitter, it might be time- lots of fun stuff comes down the pipe that way.)

But the best thing so far in my opinion has been the Deluxe "Cleaning out the van" contest, where they gave away the left over gear from the trip to the first correct entry to this question: What kind of spider was Mike Carroll bitten by ending his Beauty and the Beast 2 trip? The answer was a hobo spider, and dang is he lucky Jayme sent him off to the hospital- he was treated for staf and strep, and is recovering nicely. Jayme is pretty stoked on putting her insane fear of hobos to good use for Mikey, and we're all stoked to see the photos up all over the web. 

For those of you that couldn't be here, again, we're sorry. The guys from Anti Hero and Girl really wanted a low key, private thing so that they could have some down time from the trip and a session without a big audience. Hopefully the next time they roll through, you'll get to hang with them again. Now lets wait for the video to see all the Mobash insanity, and the stuff that went down out here that just blew minds.

Anyway... We're planning a mini ramp contest, and a trip to the new Helena park- if you haven't been over there, you should, and if you've got a moment take a peek at the video Travis Bradford has posted at the Edge of the World site for some ripping from the Edge guys and a little look at what Helena has in store for us all! 

I'm running low on bandwidth, but as soon as I can I'll post the full photo story of the Beauty and the Beast party and more...

This past weekend, I had a whopping five customers. Yeah, I know its summer and all but DANG! Come winter you ain't winning no favors by forgetting about the indoor park till snow flies. On that note, we've got a lot of rad things going on, and in the nice 92 degree heat, I tossed up the last of the framing for the outdoor mini. It may not look too pretty, but it is COMPLETELY recycled from other ramps, old wood and other people's junk. Hey, come skate it when its done and let me know what you think! Betcha you'll like it, cause the dimensions are buttery.]

We've got 20 feet of 4 foot tall walls on both sides, with 7 foot 6 inch transitions. These trannys were cut from sometimes FOUR pieces of wood and stiched together, which made for some headaches during the process, but they are smooth and uniform after some serious delicate work with the old circular saw, belt sander and experience. This ramp is looking really, really good for being made of way more pieces of wood than I'd usually start with. Initially, I had hoped to do four foot sections of flatbottom framing, but with relatively little wood topping the 4 foot mark, we had to make do. There's some serious framing under the flat, so all them fatty to flatty ollies you're planning should be just fine. 

On the flatbottom, I've been debating back and forth with some folks about just what is the BEST amount. I know the rule of thumb is usually twice the height of the ramp, but I wanted this thing to be quick and speedy so that we can add the extensions and wave corners we're hoping to toss up there without it being a lag fest going across the flats. Nothing like locking into a 16 foot long smith grind and popping out with the speed to get up the next extension! So, we got 7 foot 9 inches of flat, which seems to be a nice amount given the smooth trannys. 

So, feast your eyes on the shots and give me some feedback! AND GET OUT HERE AND SKATE! We're 100 percent down for skateboarding, and if you ain't, our scene is going to go downhill faster than them Dogtown boys on them skinny little boards, and them dudes can haul ass. 

Here's the scrap pile, getting smaller and smaller, soon to be the bonfire for an as yet unnamed party that you would be invited to if only you were out skating the park so I could invite you! More on the mini later, comments are appreciated.

With the hot weather we've been having lately, I've had lots of time to work on some rad new designs. I've got a few narrowed down thanks to suggestions from the Web poll and advice from our team, and we're ready to change things up sometime soon! I'll post some photos of the design concepts as I finish them to give people an early look, but we want to really impress any visitors this summer to keep the Missoula scene going strong! More soon...