Monster Public Park Opens in Chandler, Arizona

 by Michael Cornelius

The boom of public skateparks continues in the USA and in Arizona. The latest addition was dedicated March 4th, 2000 at Snedigar Sportsplex in Chandler, Arizona, a sleepy suburb of Phoenix.

On the grand opening day skaters, family, and friends were out in force. People packed the parks perimeter fence watching all the skate action. Pro skaters and ripping locals were on hand for a demo before the ribbon cutting ceremony. 

Overview of the 6-7 foot deep square/round bowl.

The park is nice and big with feature for every ability level. The design and flow was very well done by Site Design Group (SDG), the same company who laid out the excellent Flagstaff, AZ park among others.

Brian Harper from AZP and SDG

The park features several handrails and ledges including 2 long kinked rails. There are grindable ledges stashed all over the park for street rippers. The street/freestyle area is sunken and has a wide assortment of banks and bowls around the perimeter. In the center of the street/freestyle area is a fun box with a handrail, a rollover hump and a near vert, eight sided volcano. The park has a lot of transition and is not for the trannyphobic.  An all around skater can use the transitions and banks to attain incredible speeds. The cement finishing was done perfectly thanks to Shane Rathman who understands the needs of skaters.

I must confess that I didn't spend too much time scoping out the street area because my eyes were glued to two of the best bowls I have ever seen. The smaller of the two is a 6 foot deep square pool connected to a 7 foot deep round pool at an angle. It is very much like backyard pool but also more open.

Andy Levy, stalefish in a fresh bowl.

Most of the heavy action was in this pool. Local skater Andy Levy was boosting 4 foot high stalefish airs off of the hip. Pro skater Brian Patch was rolling in at full tilt and 50-50'ing damn near the whole square side of the bowl. Brian Harper from AZP and Site Design Group was showing the kids how to float a frontside air. A friendly snake session was in progress so there was never a dull moment in the bowl. 

About 10 feet from the smaller pool is a monster bowl that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. It has a 9 foot square deep deep end with 1 foot of true vert. The shallower section has a spine out to a volcano. There are extensions, escalator and hips all over the place. There are truly endless lines in this bowl. All the pool dogs will be out to session this wonder.

Little grommets are kept in check by the fact that neither bowl has a roll-in.

1' vert, 7 corners, 2 hips. 2 extensions, 1 spine, 2 fun.

It also keeps the flow going since no wall is broken up.

Due to the crowds I didn't have the opportunity to taste all of the parks features but I can say that this park definitely sets a new standard for gnarly public parks. If you are in the area it is a "must skate". 

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