Fall, 2003
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After a good four hours of tearing out horse stalls at the HVR site, I couldn't help but go check out this park. I needed to skate. But, I was worried that my knee wouldn't be happy with me, since Thursday Wes and I seshed at Lansing and Mason. But, ice is our friend, and my knee felt better (and the swelling went down) after I iced it on the way to the park.
When I got into range of Huntington Woods, I realized that I had left my directions at home. Well, actually, I hadn't even downloaded the directions in the first place. And, guess what? I couldn't find the place! I called my friend Rachel who is from HW and she hooked me up with directions. She also said that the park was small. I worried a bit, but the Pro Building was small too, and we used to rip that baby.
As I drove by the place, I was again in total disbelief; here's a free skatepark, right in town, ready to skate! I found a parking spot, grabbed my gear and walked in the gate.
Just like with Lansing, it was hard to tell the dimensions of the park from pictures I had seen on the web. I walked around it and found that the East bowled end is about six feet deep. The middle section, shaped kinda like a mini half, was the same depth. At either end of this mid section there are hips that separate the sections. Those hips are pretty damn fun. The West end is the shallow, about three to four feet deep, with a roll-in channel. Around the outside of the "bowls", there is a streetstyle area. The folks who built this park did a great job with what little space they had.
Note: THIS PARK HAS NO VERT
There were ten to fifteen kids riding the streetstyle area, and a handfull riding the bowls. One kid was older, and he was riding the mid and shallow ends mostly, kinda riding it mini-half style. He was having a ton of fun. I dropped into the "deep end" and had to work hard at first to get speed. The transitions are pretty big, but only take a few minutes to wire. I also had to work hard to avoid the mini-non-shreds who were sitting on their boards and rolling in. These kids hadn't yet learned ramp/pool etiquette. They're lucky my 220 pound ass didn't fly into them; they'd be just a memory today.
As I was taking pictures this 'bout eight year old kid came up and asked if I was a photographer. I said I was just a guy, taking some pics for a website. He asked if I'd take a picture of him and I said "sorry junior, no rollerblades allowed." He was bummed. I didn't mean to bum him out so I told him, "look, if you need to ask to have your picture taken, you don't need your picture taken." He kinda smiled and nodded his head in agreement.
After a while, a couple other kids started riding the bowls. They were high school aged, I guess (and guys, if you're reading this, sorry if I misjudged your ages!). The first kid was Sam. He was carvin' around the park, using the whole thing. It was nice to see it being fully utilized. My favorite was when he was hitting the hip.
Another kid, James, was carving nicely in the "deep" end. As you can see from the photo, there are no lights. The park stays open 'til 9:00, but these days it's getting dark at about 8:00. The kids there ride 'til they can't see. I can dig it.
Ok, now to the nitty gritty. Would I recommend this park? Well, there are two answers.
My first thoughts were to compare this park to the other two that recently popped up and we've been skating. This park doesn't come close to Lansing. Mason? Maybe, but the fact that HW has no vert brings it down a few notches. For me, it's an hour drive to either HW or Lansing. If someone REALLY wanted to go to HW, I'd go. But, I'd do my best to have them consider Lansing's park instead.
On the other hand... Back in the eighties, if I had seen this park, I would've crapped my pants, fallen over, died and gone to heaven, then skated the place. To have a city park with a free skatepark in it is the most awesome thing I can imagine. If you live within an hour of this place GO THERE! If you don't live within an hour, chances are you have something just as good, or better to skate. This is a weird concept to me. We always had to build our own structures to skate (actually, we still build them), and to have all these parks being built is the whip.
I can't end this review without saying a bit about traffic. I drove from Ann Arbor to Huntington Woods on a Saturday evening. One would think that traffic wouldn't be an issue, but it was. On the way back from the park at about 9:00 pm, there was a traffic jam on 696. What the fuck? Traffic was stopped. The point is, if you're used to hanging out in traffic and it's not an issue, go for it. But, if you're like me, you'll avoid that pain in the ass and find the shortest route between you and the nearest skatepark.
-Trevor
