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Finding the best skate spots always happens in the oddest places. The
outskirts of Merville (a town better known as a gas station on the outskirts
of Courtenay) is probably the last place anyone would expect to find a great
spot. It’s the location of a double wide trailer my friend bought last
summer. For those of you who haven’t lived in a trailer before, a double
wide is pretty big. This place had a nice sized kitchen, big living room,
an office with a bar and fireplace, and a centre hallway connecting these
areas. Now this is key, all rooms were connected to each other in multiple
places and all with linoleum floor. My friend and I moved into the trailer
with the intention of renovating the place. The previous owner spent more
time dragging his oxygen tank around and smoking two packs a day than he did
maintaining the house. Now, what was his name again? Was it Thomas? No,
anyway, he died. All his junk was everywhere, the place was water damaged,
nicotine stained, had no heat, no water, and there was just a lot of work to
be done. Ok, fast forward 3 months. So far we ripped up the linoleum in
the living room, put a coat of primer on the fake wood paneling, and cut a
hole in the floor (not as a random act of violence, their was water damage).
Not a lot of progress, but that was the place, the place that became
possibly the most ghetto skate spot ever created.
Ok, the birth of the Trailer Park, no one just decides to turn their house
into a skate park, that would be stupid, it had a progression. First, what
does every skater do when the winter rains come? They end up standing
around the kitchen with their buddies doing stand still tricks. Well that’s
what was happening in the trailer when we noticed the tiled fireplace in the
living room. So that sparks an all night session that completely cracks and
shatters the entire mantle. So no more fireplace skating, but we couldn’t
go back to standstill in the kitchen. Didn’t need to, the next day we set
the 5 x 10 sheet of floor board (originally bought to fix the hole in the
floor) up as a bank in the living room. Well, as the fix say’s ‘one thing
leads to another,’ and about a month later the trailer had become a skate
park. The bank was against a couch at the back of the living room. On one
side a ride on rail went over the fireplace and ended at the bank. That
side of the bank ended at the doorway into the kitchen and, therefore, was
also a gap. Sketchy landing, though, water damage weakened the floor. The
other side of the living room had a stainless steal box about one foot high,
five feet long, and two feet wide (the box was an undisclosed object form an
undisclosed place). There were two doorways into the living room, although
one doorway was more of a big space that connected it to the office and
kitchen. So, bank tricks involved entering through one doorway and exiting
through the other. A gap trick lead to the kitchen at which point we could
skate back into the office or living room and whole combinations of zigzag
patterns around the house were possible. This was the Trailer Park.
It may sound like winter heaven, but believe me; the Trailer Park had its
problems. A double wide is big for a trailer, but not so big that
zigzagging around the house meant a gentle cruise with nice figure eight
turns. To put things in perspective, no part of the park had a run up which
allowed more than one push, and by one push I mean a two step run and jump
on the skateboard. Even then we only had 1 second of set up time. Those
gentle figure eight turns were more like derby car turns, which were easy on
linoleum, that stuff was like ice! Slippery floors were a little dangerous
in the office. It had a wood stove in the middle burning 24/7 (that’s how
we heated the trailer) and was not the best thing to do a face plant on.
That wasn’t the only danger in the Trailer Park. I’ve mentioned the hole in
the living room. Eventually called the hole of death (and later called the
cat door, but that was in post Trailer Park days), it was situated directly
beside the bank and after the box and provided a new challenge for
skateboarding. I was unlucky enough to fall into it one night. My feet
went through the layer of insulation right to the muddy ground below. All
this to think about while trying to avoid wall corners and building
supplies. I guess we could have moved the building supplies, or actually
used them to renovate the house, but hey, thats life in a skatepark.
It wasn’t a perfect place to skate, but that park represented what
skateboarding is all about. Using every resource available and not giving a
rat’s ass about holes, short run ups, or fireplaces. Having a place to
drink and skate while watching skate flicks or listening to good tunes.
Playing horse and arguing about the rules until 2 in the morning. Arguing
about who put the most puncture holes in the walls. Arguing because your
roommate keeps skating while you’re trying to work on an assignment that’s
due tomorrow. Arguing because, wait, what was I talking about? Anyway, the
Trailer Park was great, but all good things must come to an end. I won’t
say much about how the Trailer Park ended, accept that my roommate has a
very cool girlfriend and I’m happy she lives there now. The skate park has
given way for renovations and the place is looking great. Although theirs
no box or bank anymore, theirs still a big piece of property, lots of wood,
and a bar. To me, that spells good times.
Unfortunately, any new construction ideas are in the hands of my roommate.
I now live in an apartment. Instead of skate sessions I have dinner
parties. The noise is at a minimum and I’m careful not to scuff up the
walls. Productivity is up; fun time is down. However, the lessons of the
Trailer Park are not forgotten. The Trailer Park taught me that
skateboarding isn’t about perfect spots or even perfect abilities. It’s not
about horse rules or who put the most damage into the house, it’s about
moving into a trailer and turning it into a skate park. Maybe if we all did
this, we’d live in a better world. Than maybe, just maybe, we could all blah
blah blah, and so on, and so on. Until that day, have fun and skate what
you can.
Andy Malcolm
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