April 9th, 2013
EVENT TRACKER: Bro Bowl Bash!
Sunday May 5th, all the bros are getting together at the famous Bro Bowl of Tampa for an event! Stay tuned for details 
Design. Build.
Sunday May 5th, all the bros are getting together at the famous Bro Bowl of Tampa for an event! Stay tuned for details
Working on some brick tranny at the new Lakeland Skate Park: 3/27/2013
Stay tuned for a grand opening date!
Orlando Local, Evan Smith just joined the professional world of skateboarding. We’ve watched him progress over the years, knowing he was going to be successful and we couldn’t be more proud of him! He has one of the most creative styles in the industry…check out his part below and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Also, Look out for Evan in this years Tampa Pro 2013 and stay tuned for an Event Tracker with the Tampa Pro 2013 results.
The wood crew finished up at Skatepark of Tampa for the 2013 course. here is a great shot of the new street course! Photo courtesy of Rob Meronek.
Team Pain’s wood crew has been in Tampa at the legendary Skatepark of Tampa all week. The boys are tackling the 2013 street course. Team Pain has headed up the course rebuilds since 1995. This year has a ton of different elements and really shows the versatility that Team Pain’s wood crew is capable of in the design and construction of a street course. Here are a few photos of the final build day, putting the finishing touches on and cleaning the place up.
The one and only Brian Schaefer approves!
As a lot of you know, Skatepark of Tampa redesigns and rebuilds the street course every year. Yesterday marked the first day of the construction of the 20th Anniversary course build. This is the demo crew that helped SPOT with the tear down before Team Pain’s crew came in. Congratulations to SPOT for 20 years. The photo was snagged from Brian Schaefer’s instagram.
We hit up Jeff Hammond, our Designer and Lead Supervisor of Wood Projects, about his recent work on Skatepark of Tampa’s street course. Here are a few of his thoughts on the new setup:
What are your favorite parts of the new build?
“My favorite part of the 2011 tampa course is the multi-use hip section.. Not for reasons of it being complicated to conceptualize or build or anything like that.. It’s actually a quite simple area to frame and consists of only straight and square lines.. Visually though, it just seems solid and clean, plus we managed to get 4 or 5 (depends on how you look at it and/or ride) different hip elements into this year’s course.. Generally speaking, hips take up a lot of area- for instance, the older tampa pyramids took up 25% of the available space in there.. Building the hips as we did this year barely used any of spot’s limited square footage.”
“I also like the surface blend in the area between the roll-in and the tight tranny 1/4, plus adjacent areas… it’s not super skate-able but I’m thinking some ’slashdogs’ will get busy in that area.. I like it more from a design/construction technique point of view.”
What inspired you to build some of the unique and quirky pieces, like the tight little quarter along the edge of the park?
“That’s one of those things you don’t necessarily think of first then set out to build it.. It comes along during the actual building process or late in the design process.. You might step back and look at what you have so far then the design tells you to put it there — instead of you telling the design what to do..”
What made you want to go for a mellower design for the course? It’s definitely the most different Tampa setup I think we’ve ever seen.
“Tampa is a tough one.. The main street course is relatively small yet it hosts two of the biggest events per year featuring many of the most talented figures in skateboarding.. Thing is, SPoT is also a premier skatepark and needs to be inviting to everyone else for the other 50 weeks in the year..
So my intent with tampa is to make it easy to ride for everybody but i try to arrange the hits in such a way that lil’ 12 year old Johnny can try his handrails tricks on an easier little rail but, if you skate the same rail in another direction or from a different angle then it opens up the possibility for a much more challenging and/or useful obstacle for the skilled riders.. So yeah, i think it’s a mellow course overall, but there are some hidden lines in there for people to get showtime on.. I don’t doubt that we’ll see some great skating at Tampa Am & Pro this year on the new course.”
“That’s the approach i’ve been going for the past few years.. instead of making single ramps (i.e.- this is the pyramid, the quarter pipe goes there, etc), I try to make much larger single structures that can be skated from different directions.. if you hit an element one way, it’s easy.. the other way and it’s hard.. you can fit a lot more options into a skatepark this way and it also becomes more visually interesting.. It’s a more difficult approach to designing and building but when it’s successful, it really pays off.”
“All that being said, if the SPoT course were strictly being designed for high level skaters then yeah, I think it would be burlier overall.”
Be sure to check out SPoT’s new course. We have already skated it, and had a total blast! Big props to Jeff Hammond, and the rest of our wood crew for building such a sick course this year! Check this video to see it being shredded by some SPoT locals.
First Session on Skatepark of Tampa’s New Street Course from Skatepark of Tampa on Vimeo.
Our wood crew is on the scene at Skatepark of Tampa this week piecing together this years street course layout. The park is coming along quickly, and the word is it will be finished up tomorrow! Rest assured there will be some FL locals ripping the new course by the weekend, figuring out lines before the park gets swamped for Tampa Am. The park was designed by Team member Jeff Hammond, and features a variety of mellower obstacles compared to designs in the past. Be sure to check out the new course and let us know what you think on our facebook page!
We are once again giving Skatepark of Tampa it’s yearly makeover within the next couple weeks. Their Ramp Armor is ordered and on the way, meaning the construction will begin shortly. We are honored to get to build the course for such a core skateboarding event each year. This is actually the fifth year in a row we have built the course for SPoT. SPoT is always changing up the course to keep things fresh for each one of their huge events. Be sure to check back for some SPoT reconstruction photos soon!
Tampa AM 2011: Live Webcast on December 4 at Noon EST from Skatepark of Tampa on Vimeo.
Grind For Life ran a skatepark series throughout a bunch of parks we built in Florida. Starting at Skatepark of Tampa, and stopping by Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna skateparks as well. The final event is November 12th at Cocoa Beach Skatepark. Grind For Life’s events are always fun for the entire family, be sure to check it out if you are in the area to support a great cause!
