2011-11-21      -rocky
I just found out there's plans to close Vans Skatepark in Orlando, Florida in January of 2011. The reason, per Vans, is "our lease is not being renewed due to re-development of the property." It's a darn shame, because that's the best of the two remaining locations. A similar type of thing happened with the Novi, Michigan Vans Skatepark location a few years back. Modern Skatepark resumed operation of the skatepark, also located in a mall, and they were the ones that had to face the closure due to the property managers remodeling. I'm not sure if that was the reason the Novi Vans closed though... Modern opened the new alternate location months later in Royal Oak, and later found there was a big stall with the remodeling and they probably could have kept their doors open longer.
      The Orlando Vans location may not have an option to remain open. I really wish they had plans to choose an alternate location.

http://www.vans.com/news/item/1796472/vans-skatepark-orlando-fl-closing-january-2012

2010-08-10      -rocky
Time for some housekeeping. I've been adding videos on YouTube but not updating it here, so if it seems like I've been holding out on 35-40 videos, I wasn't. I have created a changelog feature for updates to park information, redesigned the web site layout (abandoned tables), added some parks here and there, consolidated some web pages, stashed some hidden features, and lost a solid week or two worth of work (note to self, use bookmarks and a text editor with an auto recovery feature), had my first set of professional stickers made, and met some new musicians/artists (many thanks).
      I have relocated to sunny California, which should serve my needs as a technical nerd and skateboarder quite well. I've hit up two events in my new hood - Converse Coastal Carnage and Maloof Money Cup - and put up some quick course tours. There were two small bowls open to the public at the Converse event, and what looked like warm ups or a jam session was going down when I showed up. Maloof had plenty of vendors (thanks for the schwag). I got to meet Chris Haslam and PLG - both super cool people - and Haslam politely accepted a few stickers from me :) I'll be hitting some California parks with a relaxed schedule, and I'll be making the trek to Maine for a week of work in October. Please don't snow.

2010-06-13      -rocky
I find myself once again back in Florida, and was originally supposed to be here only for 5 days, which turned into 10. I've made stops in to New Smyrna Beach, Stone Edge Skatepark, the new Daytona Beach Skatepark, Flaggler Beach, Kona, Skatepark of Tampa, The Ghetto Skate Facility, Vans, and the outdoor Orlando skatepark. Video tours and pictures to follow (eventually).

2010-03-07      -rocky
So a weekend in Virginia for myself translates into 9 skateparks visited between Charlottesville and Virginia Beach. I'm tired, my right foot is sore from driving, and I have some lower back-fat road-rash that really makes the idea of having to wear pants for the next week suck. Thanks to everybody that made my excursion enjoyable, especially the crew at Mike's Sk8 Park in Norfolk and a guy I met at the Chesapeake skatepark. For now, I need to catch up on some homework, do some laundry, and get ready to get up way before the sun comes up to go to work.
    I'm behind on the site too - I don't have all the parks I just hit listed, and now I'm about 20 videos behind.
    ...and thanks to everybody that took a sticker and didn't rip on my impromptu 20-minute-magic-marker-designs I dished out at Office Max. I went through about 300 stickers between handing them out and doing some sticker slapping (with permission, of course).

2010-02-19      -rocky
I've been painfully behind on work I need to do here while dealing with work and college. I still have tours that I haven't put together from last summer, and I've lost count of what the tally is. I've got some travel coming up soon to Virginia and California, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for spring and summer so we can get back outside and skate! Standby, and I'll have some new parks listed and new videos posted as soon as time allows.

2009-12-15      -rocky
I've been staying effectively busy between work and my return to college, and I'm still plugging away with additions to the site. I've completed the California Skateparks and Wormhoudt skatepark listings, finished posting Wormhoudt pictures, and am about to start with the pics for California Skateparks. I'm going back to the panhandle next month, and will put together some more tours. I also got permission from Bad Manners to use their music. Thanks Buster!

2009-11-10      -rocky
Have you noticed any pictures of skateparks? in the listings yet? Take a look at this page with all the pictures on it. If you have any pictures focusing on skateparks themselves you'd like to share (I do note credit/source), send 'em on in to rocky (at) iloveskateparks.com.

2009-10-05      -rocky
Internet Explorer users may have noticed that the 'All Skateparks' page either makes IE take a dump or says that it can't display the page. I don't seem to mind, since I use Chrome or Firefox. Sorry if it has turned some users away, but it works if there's a few hundred less results :) I'm quite confident that what's causing it is the fact that I have nearly 1,000 points on the map, all displaying at once. I think the Google Maps API documentation mentioned something about a limitation or a performance threshold somewhere near 100. Limits, schlimits. I think it's pretty cool to look at one map and see them all. I'd really suggest giving another internet browser - it would be worth it - with just being able to see the map of all the skateparks at once
      You might also notice a difference between the eastern and western U.S.. Namely, the east is saturated with markers compared to the west. I'm trying to take care of the Eastern U.S. first. So, hey, Eastern U.S., I got your back. Can I use your couch? No, seriously?



2009-10-01      -rocky
I updated the custom search, and it now includes multiple sources, not just iloveskateparks.com/parkskaters.net. Give it a go. Think of a park, any park. I've got some more videos out, and have just recently gotten permission to use music from Golgoth 13 and Vincil from Ummo. (thanks :) The 'Introducing ILoveSkateparks.com' video took about 8 hours compared to the 20 minute hack and slash editing I normally do. Tobe finally gave props to the kung fu sounds in the intros.

2009-09-02      -rocky
There's been a lot going on here at iloveskateparks.com, but first, here's an entry for Rocky's injury log:

I seem to have developed a new habit of falling on my shoulders. The first time, left shoulder, my timing was _way_ off transferring a spine, and instead of landing on my face I pulverized my shoulder meat and got road rash on my shoulder ...and my nipple. That's a first. The second time, right shoulder, I wobbled out on the flat after a frontside indy on a vert wall. Road rash, but nipple skin intact. My left foot still kills sometimes when it takes impact the wrong way, and when I swim it feels like my big toe is hanging by a thread - that's an injury from about two years ago. And finally, my jaw still bothers me daily. I was skating the bowl at Stability Skatepark in Myrtle Beach SC, and on my first run I slammed so hard on my left hip and arm that I got TMJ on the right side of my jaw (that's what holds my jaw and my skull together).

I've been adding more parks, almost 100 in a month, and touching up parks I already have with more information. I've started to collect pictures and documents to post, and have gotten some from various parks and recreation, city, government, or municipal representatives - and builders and private park owners (I'd like to thank everyone again for your time, and look forward to hearing from others). Pictures will be posted in batches, and I'm still working on the documents. I was also contacted by California Ramp Works, the builders of the MegaRamp, who just wanted to be listed on iloveskateparks.com as a builder. I was stoked, and asked if they'd be willing to share information on their projects. They gave oodles of information on California Skateparks projects as well as CA Ramp Works. This will be a great lead and a source of accurate information, and that's what this site is all about - accuracy. I'll also likely have to give some more thought to builder and designer information, because there's often a couple hands in a park's creation, and you can't always classify as a builder or designer responsibility... so there'll probably be some restructuring on the way.

2009-08-23      -rocky
I've been playing with captchas (specifically reCaptcha) since April, and I've finally completed a couple new features. All parks now have a comments section where you can leave a comment without requiring a user account. I'll have it at least on state pages in the near future. I have also put together a picture/image system to display pictures of skateparks and slapped in some old pictures. I'll get some from the video footage I have and will also start contacting Parks & Recs departments to see if anyone can pass me some pictures. If you have any pictures of skateparks, and would like to send them in, I'll be sure to list you as a credit. Email any skatepark pictures to rocky (at) iloveskateparks.com.

2009-07-29      -rocky
I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but when you view certain parks, it's in satellite mode by default. This lets you know that the position is EXACT, and you can just zoom right in on the park. ...So I figured out how to do static maps in two ticks, and we instantly have satellite overviews of about 90 parks. This will now be displayed in addition to the regular maps. Below are some pretty good examples - Goodyear AZ, Phoenix AZ, Las Vegas NV, and Louisville KY respectively.



Scroll down toward the end of the DEAD ON skate filter to see all of them.

2009-07-17      -rocky
I fixed the phone number display issue. I fat fingered it at some time (sorry bout that). If a phone number was entered, it will display below the address.

2009-07-09      -rocky
My life will not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming "Wow, what a ride!"

Go skate.

2009-07-01      -rocky
So I've been to Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan in the past couple months - and I'm about to head down to Tennessee and also pay another visit to Skatopia within a week or two. My footage is getting stacked up and I haven't had time to dish out all the new videos - though I did get the time to put out 6 in the past few days. I suggest you subscribe to my youtube channel so you know when new videos come out.
     Drop a line if you'd like to help out by telling me where bikes and blades are or are not welcome - or if you'd like to help add parks in your area. I need input from locals - and nobody knows as good as you.

2009-05-31      -rocky
So I've been out and about in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Michigan. I'll be heading back to Florida in the near future and will make my first venture to the Chicago area in a couple of weeks.
    I've had the pleasure of connecting with a few people through this site... owners of other sites, people connected with skateparks, and bands. I'm always happy to get feedback, let alone somebody new that appreciates skateboarding.
    I've made a homage, of sorts, to Dan's Skate Page - (Northwestskater.com), which is the my skateparks page. I've stumbled upon his page many times and have been pretty impressed with his travels. I hoped to build my own list, and I'm trying to open this feature up to other users.
    I've also got more tours to slap together, and I've recently gotten permission from The Real McKenzies to use their music in my videos. I also reached out to the Orlando scene and got some replies from local bands. I'm excited about my acceptable music library being expanded.

2009-04-24      -rocky
Hey Floridians - This is the number 6582743018

2009-04-12      -rocky
I fixed the indoor park page (that must have been broken for a while), and California now shows an icon with a total number of parks on the select a state page. The icon used to be the default marker because I didn't have numbered icons up in the hundreds. Note to self.

2009-04-10      -rocky
I had a great time in Florida. I'd like to say thanks to all the locals for the warm greetings and the info on skateparks. The YMCA session on Thursday was tight - shredders galore. I'm glad I posted on FloridaSkater.com. I'll be sure to post for future visits.

Florida Skatepark footage on the way.

2009-04-03      -rocky
I've been spending some time on SkateOregon.com and I'm pushing 700 parks.

You'll notice some parks, when viewing the details, automatically show the hybrid satellite mode; zoom right in and look at the actual park. I've marked _exactly_ where it is. There are two markers in that case - one original and one more accurate.

2009-03-18      -rocky
I fixed some display issues for the city, state, and zip on the details page and re-arranged how the page is presented. I'm still not quite happy with it. I've got some new footage I need to throw together, but I'm holding out for a sec hoping to hear back from some bands I contacted... More to come for Florida, Michigan, and California in the near future.

2009-03-01      -rocky
So I went down to Florida for a week and forgot my video camera... no problem though, I had my digital camera. Wait a minute, it's dead and I don't have my charger. No problems. I had a good time and spent all my skating time at MIA Skatepark in Miami. I'll probably end up going back out to Florida again, and next time I'll remember my camera.

I'm bringing out some new shtuff. I made a skatepark search / filter that has a couple of different options so far: Dead on , Free Skateparks , Indoor Skateparks , Outdoor Skateparks , Concrete Skateparks , Tours , and Accurate Skateparks . I also made some changes to the links page. I still have more features on the way, road trips on my mind, and help to solicit.

2009-02-18      -rocky
I'm sprucing up the Florida listings. I'll be swinging through Miami and up the east coast a little bit. I hit Vans and SPO Tampa last time, so I'll be hanging around the south east.

I now have a total of 626 parks listed :)

2009-01-04      -rocky
Workin'. Added new parks, gave the site template a facelift, added more videos, and added more features. I'm up to 486 skateparks, including 136 indoor skateparks. Driving directions are now available when viewing the details for listed parks. Just plug in your (street, city, state) or simply (city, state) and click 'Go Skate!' to get directions. Now... how do I get that to print? I'm still working on that and other back end changes that will soon be evident - I've got a few more features to come. I also keep managing to find more footage from months past and am up to 43 videos on my youtube channel. Keep skating and keep checking back.

2008-12-08      -rocky
I would just like to say Skate Factory Xtreme of Ghent, New York at sfxtreme.com has a the smoothest skatepark website I've seen. Props to simplicity and flow. ...that's it... Go skate.

2008-12-07      -rocky
Winter really can turn you sour if you don't have a place to skate. I've beefed up the indoor skatepark listings with some more entries, and even more are on the way. ...and more videos like I've been promising. I still don't have stuff from March up.

I've been making some friends too... Concrete Disciples was the first to get a hold of me, and I've agreed to help maintain the skatepark listings on CD. Then along came Stalefish.tv, who also has videos organized by skateparks. You'll see some links to them in park detail pages on this site.

As if making the videos didn't take up enough of my time, some of the ones I do have online are getting taken down or tagged by certain record companies... so I got a hold of NoFX and asked if I could get their permission to use their music in poorly edited Youtube videos. To my suprise, I got a response, Kent checked out my content, and I got an ok, a compliment, and some more motivation to keep it up.

2008-11-09      -rocky
I'm cleaning up some code and getting some of my next tasks organized. I've made my Cali trip and have about 8 videos I still have to 'edit' and put online; hope to have them up in the next week.

2008-05-03      -rocky
More videos. Still more to come. I made that search feature up on the right work, but the results page sucks. I'll put some more work into that later. I'm also working on some 'dead on' parks....
          I'm also trying to hook with anybody that wants to do some charity art work for my site. If you find yourself interested, hit the feedback form.

2008-04-09      -rocky
I got three new videos posted, and I'm getting together footage for some more. I switched to a Linux server. Represent.
          I'd like to hear from anybody checking out the site - drop a line with my new feedback form.

2008-03-25      -rocky
I'm still here. Life has gotten busy for me, but I continue my efforts. I've made a trip to the Skatepark of Tampa and Vans in Orlando, but haven't had time to put the videos up. Detroit, Minneapolis, Orlando, and hopefully California are on the agenda.

2007-11-24      -rocky
Got some more work done. State maps now also have lists below. More information stored in the database is now displayed on the details page. The indoor parks link now shows a map and a list. I can't do that with outdoor yet - there is a performance limitation on the Google Maps API of 100 markers, and I haven't given thought to how to split the results up.
          I got a couple more skate park videos posted on youtube. Check it out.

2007-11-04      -rocky
I got more videos of Cincinnati Area parks - no skating, I just filmed the parks so you can get a good look. I updated the link to the internal video page to point to youtube so I don't have to keep updating it. Check out my youtube channel.

My foot's still jacked, and it's now in constant pain. I told the doc I skated a bit a couple days for an hour, then skated at the Birdhouse demo for 3 hours and stood for 3 - of course he told me I'm just making it worse. I have to give it another 3 weeks . Bad for me, good for the site. This is probably the only reason the site has had so many updates recently... I take that back, I added Georgia parks for my trip this week, so it's just a large contributing factor. I'm headed to Georgia today. Next week or the week after, I'll be going to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Have to stay off the foot... Have to stay off the foot... Have to stay off the foot...

2007-10-26      -rocky
I've still been doing stuff. I've had down time with an injury since the 8th. I put in a hit counter in on the 15th, and I've had 82 unique visitors since. That's given me a little motivation since other people are obviously using it. I also just found my old error page while debugging, and saw where I noted this site was created July 17th, 2005.

I finished up on the first round of Georgia parks. I ended up skipping some parks that I just couldn't find enough evidence for... I need to start logging those so when I update I remember why they weren't added. Sometimes I spend 20-30 minutes looking up a park that I can't find.

2007-10-19      -rocky
I've been doing some clean up lately; deleting old pages and cleaning up code. Take another look around if you haven't been here for a month or so. I'm headed out to Georgia and Alabama next, so check back for those listings.

Before I lose track of this, here are the old links: All skateparks, My skateparks, Select a state, Skatepark filter, Indoor parks, Skatepark tours, Skate Videos, Links, crap (store), about