After posting about the hidden Putt Putt course the other day (see post), a BRO viewer send me these cool pics. Yes, that's right... the skate boarders have already figured out that the abandoned course makes for a great skate park. If you look close (top photo) you can see upwards of fifteen skaters hangin' out. The bottom photo features a skater trying out a kick flip on one of the bowls that I was talking about the other day. With no other outdoor skate park in the city, the urban skaters will make do with anything they can find. Fortunately, this Putt Putt course offers many of the features found in traditional skate parks.
Last summer I photographed skaters who were pulling tricks on an old building foundation in the Old First Ward. The safety factor at that makeshift park was nil. I'll keep preaching the importance of a skate park until I'm blue in the face... these kids are going to skate somewhere. Why not make it safer and more inviting for them to do so? And don't tell me that they're skating in these places so no one will find them. The skaters are proud of their sport and would rather skate in the eye of the public. So maybe it's not such a bad idea to convert an old Putt Putt course to a legitimate skate park after all.
Here's a comment from 'Arelli' left on the last post:
Yeah, so as a couple people already said, this place has been skated by some locals for years now. Many of us have invested a decent amount of money and time over the years buying bags of concrete and hauling it back there to fill in the cracks and build up the one main kidney shaped bowl. Every year though the neighborhood kids with nothing better to do come back there and trach all the work that was put into it. The past couple years nobody has dedidicated any real time to upkeep because they have seen too much of their hard work go to waste. It does still get skated though, and if this little article brings light to the fact that this place is there, and if anyone now gets in trouble for tresspassing or anything back there it would pretty sad that some guy on his bike felt the need to write an article about the place and screw it up for some skateboarders just trying to have fun.
And yes, I do have a fixation with skate parks. I will keep posting about them until we get one in the city. Sorry about the additional exposure for any skaters who are worried that more jerks will trash that Putt Putt course, but hopefully one day this will all pay off.