SKATESPOTS:
Chandler Skatepark
Desert West Skatepark
Reed Skatepark
Salida Skatepark
Visalia SkatePark
Wedge Skatepark
N33' 14.397
W111' 51.552
N33' 28.435
W112' 12.170
N33' 24.370
W111' 47.740
N38' 32.238
W105' 59.557
N36' 19.963
W119' 18.177
W33' 27.997
N111' 54.914
GPS for Skaters
by Michael Cornelius
I give credit to skateboarding for my keen sense of direction. Due to the countless times I have stood at a party, beer in hand, listening to directions to the latest and greatest pool being shouted above the party noise.
"Yeah man, it's a rad pool. It's over on the west side north of Rose Ln. or Rose Garden or something like that. You just have
to turn left after the 3rd auto parts store on 19th and then go right then left again after the blue house with the RV."
"Cool, got it" And I would get it, because without a bloodhounds tracking skills a pool skater is a street skater. Over the years
I have resorted to all kinds of tricks to spot and skate pools including renting a light plane to shoot photos of likely candidates
from the air. There is always a detailed street map in my car for handy reference. Some skaters go so far as to catalog pools
with color coded icons in their Thomas guides.
All that work honing directional skills will soon be replaced by affordable GPS technology. GPS stands for Global Positioning
System. I'm not going to go into a long explanation of how it works. The short version is that a little handheld receiver picks up
signals from satellites 11,000 miles out in space and can pinpoint your location to within spitting distance. (You can read the
long explanation here if you wish.)
The best way to see the benefits might be to imagine the pool skating road trip of the near future:
While planning a trip to Albuquerque I email a few skaters whose web pages I read and ask for information on local spots.
Rather than send me crappy directions my bud emails me the waypoints (longitude and latitude) of several skate spots in the
area. I enter these locations into my GPS unit and hit the road.
That's only the beginning too. With plenty of processing power a GPS can do tons more.
On May 1 the US government ceased degrading the GPS satellites signal for civilian use. The result is that now GPS receivers
are 10x more accurate than they were before. This, along with more affordable pricing, will bring the benefits of precise
positioning to the masses. Even skaters. I predict widespread trading of skatespot info via waypoint in the near future. In a
few years GPS receivers will be wristwatch sized and cost about the same as a Swatch. You heard it here first. The first
application of GPS technology to skateboarding.
Hmm, maybe it really stands for Getting Pools for Skating.
UPDATE!!
I ran across Hugh R's Old School Skating and Longboarding page and discovered another use for GPS in skating. Hugh uses GPS to not only find the nice downhills he uses it to measure the length and vertical drop. It helps him rate hills from tame to extreme.
The map on my GPS shows me my progress towards the goal and makes finding the spot a no brainer even in a strange city. I
skate the pool for a while and decide to break for lunch. I cruise around looking for the fattest burrito for about an hour. After
I eat, the GPS guides me back to the spot via the most direct route. No back tracking.