All Good Things Must End
Two years ago, my neighbor and I had the great idea to build a quarterpipe. It had sweet 9' transitions, 3' high, 8' wide with 1 1/2" metal coping along a 1 1/2' deck. We'd pull it out onto Baltic Street on weekends, turn up the music, pop the beers and skate until it was too dark to see. Just like I used to do when I was a teenager. Riding up the ramp and doing my first kickturn gave me such a rush of returning to a younger age. It's hard to describe, but I could viscerally feel all the fun I used to have on my ramps skating. So I figured I'd score the video below with one of my old faves: Descendents "I Don't Wanna Grow Up".
I started getting back some of my old tricks and then I fell. I tore my meniscus in my right knee and was out of commission for months. As the ramp sat in my alley in the rain and snow, it became pretty unusable. I was going to try and donate the transitions and coping to a park or individual, but alas, the weather got the best of the wood.
Recently, our landlord asked if we could remove the "piece of wood" so his son, the doctor, could park there. We never signed on to live next to/in a parking lot, but the ramp needed to go regardless. And the fight to keep cars out of our yard begins.
Here's the 1 and only video made of our first session and some photos as it was being torn down. R.I.P. Baltic Park, it was a blast!
The skeletal remains:
Nothing but firewood now:
Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea!