We went down to The Compound skatepark at Lake Perris today to drop some new SS product in with Shane one of Stephens good buddies who owns the park and store down there. Basically The Compound and Stephen have a good history.. It was the place where he won his first contest back in 2001 on the DK Dirt circuit and it was the spot where he put in hours of practice on a daily basis mastering his double flip on the run in to the X Games in Philly where he stomped the double flip for the first time in a contest.

Shane not only helped with fundraisers but is there for Stephen whenever he needs him! He’s put this cool banner up in the park as a tribute. There are plenty of Stay Strong logo’s and stickers in circulation down there and he definately pushes the cause!

Nicholl Park is home to a 10,000-square-foot skate plaza. The richmond california skate plaza does not have bowls and things the resemble a typical skatepark but instead it resembles an urban street setting with rails, ledges and ramps of varying difficulty. Below are some pictures and a video clip.. Enjoy

Chris Pfanner, Peter Ramondetta, Justin Brock, Ryan Mcwhirter and a crew of rippers took a day trip out to St. Helena Skatepark.

Here is a video of Dan Drehobl, Darren Navarrette, Al Partanen, Andrew Reynolds, Grant Taylor, Leo Romero, Alex Horn, and Chris Haslam on their independent holiday. The Cayman Island Skatepark is so insane and huge. I think its still the second biggest skatepark in the world.

For years I’ve questioned the promise of 15 and 20 year warranties offered by some companies and, I have to say, they are too good to be true. Seriously, can anyone really expect any product built from concrete or steel to last 15 or 20 years, let alone have a realistic expectation that same product will have a warranty that long? Police cars, fire trucks, computers, electric generators, water lines or even the very building in which you are probably sitting right now… are any of them covered for 20 years? 15? Maybe 10? How about 5? In short, no they’re not… and neither is your skatepark.

Can customers really believe this promise? These prefab steel parks have a history of 3-5 year effective lifespans after which time they are typically either removed, replaced or refurbished. So what, you say? After performing the necessary maintenance to keep one of these items viable and safe- or moving the ramp within the same park or to another location- the warranty is VOID…. period, done like dinner, it’s all on you now. It’s hard to imagine that moving a ramp across the lot (remember all the promises of being able to reconfigure the park to keep it interesting?) can some how be responsible for the steel walls rusting but it must be true, otherwise why would they write it?

Below is a copy of the warranty from a prefab steel and precast concrete ramp manufacturer. When a promise of a 15 or 20 year warranty is qualified by saying “installation of replacement parts… not covered under this warranty and freight is to be PREPAID by purchaser” I think the “purchaser” should be scared. Can you imagine not only paying twice for an item but prepaying for shipping on 10,000 pounds of prefab concrete? Then, once the item arrives at your site you have to remove the old ramp with a crane and dispose of it, install the new one with a crane and perform the necessary repairs to the surrounding site. Do we see a problem here?

Here’s how I read this warranty-
* warranty is at the discretion of manufacturer
* warranty does not cover normal wear and tear (it is a skatepark, remember)
* warranty does not cover acts of God (such as freeze and thaw cycles?)
* if a purchaser does not follow the daily, weekly and monthly maintenance recommendations the warranty is void

In my opinion, these promises are misleading and intended to offer nothing more than an empty one-up to the competition in a selfish game of sales wars. And as long as “purchasers” hang their hats on the number of years the product is (supposedly) covered our industry will remain stagnant and the skaters will lose.

Seriously, isn’t using a warranty written by the vendor like asking the fox to guard the hen house? WRITE YOUR OWN WARRANTY!!!

Companies like Who Skates do not hide behind caveats but rather clearly and honestly spell out what we will and will not cover and for how long. Cities and Towns should write the warranties as Exhibits to the contract and remove all of the wiggling and fine print… force builders to make the commitment to no-fine-print warranties covering EVERYTHING in their contract, give them little or no wiggle room and go for the jugular if they leave you hanging… in a test of only the strong (or experienced) survive you will be doing a service to the taxpayers and the skaters.

Text and Image Courtesy Who Skates