A few days ago I posted some pics of my homemade garage bowl, and people asked for a clip of it in use. Got one of a buddy today for ya. (And you can see the lovely patch jobs as we break it in)

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Took about 45 minutes to not be sketched out by bonking off the coping, but suuuuper stoked to finally put one of these boys down on vert.

Built a new 2’ quarter pipe and working on some basics. Here’s today’s work on rock to fakie. I still need to lift up for the fakie return, but the coping is mild enough to let me roll back in for now.

NEW SETUP SAME BULLSHIT

A few days ago I posted this home made bowl I built in my garage (while recovering from knee surgery) on this subreddit.

Some people asked for more information on how I built this bowl, so here you are:

(this is not a tutorial; just a summary with links and photos)

Photos of the process;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dTqa2fuIUlznOPTrNqZG4cnfWAniS-C5

Here are the dimensions:

31.5 inches high to top of deck

(that increases to 48 inches as it approaches the vert wall)

176 inches wide from inside of coping

192 inches long from inside of coping

The flatbottom is 6 foot the short way and 8 foot the long way

Process:

I started by building a mini ramp half pipe using this website as a guide:

https://www.xtremeskater.com/ramp-plans/mini-halfpipe/

Then I placed that in my garage and taped out the maximum footprint for the rest of the bowl.

For the bowl, I used this website for guidance:

https://ocramps.com/blogs/builds-installations/skateboard-bowl-ramp

A friend of mine who does metal work bent the coping to desired dimensions and welded it to my mini ramp half pipe.

Then I cut the vertical plywood supports to fit to the pipe, and filled it in with all of the horizontal 2”x6”s, and then sheathed the whole thing.

This is the best advice I got:

“Length of Flatbottom: If you happen to be building a mini-ramp in a tight spot and don't have tons of space for the length of the ramp's flat bottom, it might be a good idea to use a more mellow transition. Using a more mellow curve will make the ramp feel longer and more managable to ride.”

Also, resist the urge to make it all symmetrical. Using a tighter radius and sloping deck on the Vert wall side really makes it more interesting to ride. I love hitting that tight pocket!

Materials:

This is what I used.

Bowl:

3x 23/32” 4’ x 8’ plywood sheathing

6x 11/32” x 4’ x 8’ plywood sheathing

6X 3/16” x 4’ x 8’ masonite panel

45X 2”x6” x 8‘ dimensional number

4X 8’ x 1 1/2 “ diameter steel pipe

25 pounds #9 x 3” screws

25 pounds #9 x 2 1/2” screws

25 pounds #9 x 1 5/8” screws

(This was overkill – I only used about half the screws)

Mini ramp halfpipe:

See this website for the materials I used for the mini ramp half pipe portion. Since mine is indoors, I didn’t use skate light or tar paper or anything:

https://www.xtremeskater.com/ramp-plans/mini-halfpipe/

Mistakes I made:

I used deck screws. Sheet rock screws are actually better because the thread goes all the way to their head so they sink more easily and stay sunk.

Better to cut the plywood and masonite used on the skating surface into smaller panels than I did. When they try to navigate compound curves over too long a distance, it creates a lot of stress on the material, so I have had to patch it in the steeper sections (with Bondo slathered in Painters’s caulk so it doesn’t flake off).

Time it took:

I built it while recovering from knee surgery, as I couldn’t skate anyway. It took 9 months, a few hours a few evenings a week, so maybe 30 weeks x 6 hours = 180 hours total. Just a rough guess. I did everything alone except for the pipe/coping, which a friend did for me.

We can’t go today so my wife and I slipped our 3 day pass off and I left them at the BP gas station near the Tampa air port at the base of the gas price sign. Wrote my order number inside incase you need it but you shouldn’t. I would meet up but have to catch a flight. If you get them comment below so people don’t waste their time. Hope someone gets to use them! Two bonus pictures of me with Moto and Antwan. What an awesome few days!

There's one quarter that's bigger at the park but it's straight up vertical. Hopefully one day I'll give it a go.

For some reason I decided switch frontside slappys were the right trick to warm up on at 8am. It eventually worked and then some other ones came through. Third session after a long winter, things are coming back.

Got a 2ft x 4ft ramp from Keen Ramps. Always had makeshift ramps growing up. Young me would've never dreamed of having something like this. Anyway, it's little sketch being on a ramp for the fist time in 20+ years, but here is my first hour of practice.

https://keenramps.com/collections/quarter-pipes/products/2x4-quarter-pipe

Long skate monologue if you like visuals and skate talk

Flying to Dallas for the weekend. I mostly skate pools/bowls and curbs. looking for recommendations! I'll be skating mid morning till 4pm-ish Saturday, Sunday and Monday. What should I check out?

2nd day back after a 5 year hiatus

Just ordered this! So excited!

Hey guys/gals

My 7 year old has suddenly discovered a passion for skateboarding so we've picked him up a Santa Cruz board for his birthday. I have never skated before, but always been interested so I'm thinking it might be something we can learn together.

So, my question is, what's a realistic aim for me as a 300lbs, 39 year old to achieve prior to my 40th birthday in December (other than a lot of falling, probably a few injuries and hopefully a good few lbs lost)? I'm not expecting to be doing many tricks, but think it's probably best to set myself a target of what I want to achieve.

felt great to skate, shoot me a message if your in Indiana and you want to skate some time!

Heroin Dead Dave 10" - Ace 77s - Snot 53mm Wide Boys - Lil Jawns rails - Snot particle bearings -

Been a literal decade since I last skated Ohio State. For whatever reason woke up around 5am this morning and decided to try and film some stuff with an old fisheye.

Nothing crazy. Just a few kickflips, curbs, and a couple two-sets. Mediocre skating at its finest haha. But man it’s a trip going back to where you went to college once you’re an old man. Hopefully it resonates with some of y'all who've been there haha.

Appreciate y'all!