On a connected tip, it seemed churlish not to post this short film about the opening of Beirut's first proper skatepark alongside the above. Whilst the scale is vastly reduced, Snoubar Skatepark, serves exactly the same function for the disaffected youth of Lebanon's capital as the concrete behemoth under the Burnside bridge did for the youth of Portland. Featuring Helena Long, Jono Coote and a host of Beirut locals, this is an uplifting watch.
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Skateboarding DIY - Grindland and Beirut concrete
Thrasher have been teasing this Skateboarding DIY documentary for a while now. Throughout Jake Phelps' era, the epic scale skateparks built by Monk and Red AKA Mark Scott and Mark Hubbard were everywhere. These two outsiders, after first laying crete together in Portland at what became Burnside, went on to radically change skatepark construction across the globe. Whilst Burnside absolutely wasn't the birthplace of Skateboarding DIY, (that happened a decade before with the explosion of backyard ramps that kept skateboarding alive after the extinction level event of that late 70s), it is still indubitably the place that birthed the modern concept of skateboarding DIY that pertained to concrete laid in public space without prior permission.
Red and Monk started at Burnside with little more than a need to create a sheltered free space for their local scene in the early 90s. Subsequently their efforts became globally renowned and a launchpad for the pair to start one, then two, skatepark construction companies which set about furnishing the Pacific North West with free-to-use public skateparks of a scale and complexity never seen previously.
This Grindland documentary details this story with a ton of archive footage of Monk and Red building and ripping across the world. Their legacy is indelible and directly linked to the vastly accelerated learning curve of modern transition skating. Full-on nerds will most likely know a lot (if not all) of the tale already but still, this is pretty compelling viewing and very much the sort of thing that Thrasher Magazine has a cultural duty to make in my opinion.
If the final scene of Hubbard's daughter standing in for her dad as the lyricist for Grindline the band doesn't have you tearing up, then you've no heart.
Rest in peace Monk.
On a connected tip, it seemed churlish not to post this short film about the opening of Beirut's first proper skatepark alongside the above. Whilst the scale is vastly reduced, Snoubar Skatepark, serves exactly the same function for the disaffected youth of Lebanon's capital as the concrete behemoth under the Burnside bridge did for the youth of Portland. Featuring Helena Long, Jono Coote and a host of Beirut locals, this is an uplifting watch.
On a connected tip, it seemed churlish not to post this short film about the opening of Beirut's first proper skatepark alongside the above. Whilst the scale is vastly reduced, Snoubar Skatepark, serves exactly the same function for the disaffected youth of Lebanon's capital as the concrete behemoth under the Burnside bridge did for the youth of Portland. Featuring Helena Long, Jono Coote and a host of Beirut locals, this is an uplifting watch.
