John Rattray kickflips the bollocks for the masses
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Kelvingrove skatepark is situated, funnily enough, in Kelvingrove park, Glasgow...
By day a family packed hive of activity, ice creams, kids playing, yadda yadda. By night a rent-boy ridden, ned nest. Well maybe I’m being harsh, but there can be a heavy ned presence at nights, and men have been known to pay men of the night for a bumming in the bushes.
As far as the skateboard park goes it’s nestled in to the western corner of the park near the Kelvin Gallerys. More of a “street plaza” than skate park, the orientation weighs heavily toward, unsurprisingly, the obstacles of the street. Yep kids, that means steps! Not just a few here and there though, they are there by the bucket load.
I heard that originally the park was supposed more transition/flat bank based stuff and somehow got turned into the “street plaza” thing. It’s a bit of a shame because of some of the sets of steps disrupt the flow of the park, It seems a fairly simple thing to get right its odd that so many skate parks suffer from the “I’m going fast. Oh, there’s a set of steps in my way” thing.
Branden shows us how to use the long curvey block with a fast old five o biggie straight into a swarm of pesky youthlings.
Andy White steals a Nick Jenson original line and one ups him by adding an Elvis-esque hip twisting ally oop 180.
This is Andy's perfect idea of a fun time down the park, find the biggest gap and jump down it. Good thing them Nikes have got air bubbles and that.
Piece of piss Nollie Back D Reevs, nothing more to say.
As an ageing man I have a personal dislike of sets of steps in skate parks, but Kelvingrove does a fairly good job of keeping the streets of Glasgow skateboarder free, so maybe in the councils eyes it’s a great idea to putting all those steps in there...
The park itself is fairly low impact nothing really gets above 4ft, except a gigantic 5 set that serves as more of a bench for neds to sit around drinking on than actually getting skated. The trannies are really mellow and it means you can get away with a lot of stuff other concrete parks might let you.
There is one mellow hip, a driveway with rail and a wobbley Wembley gap, all in a row. At a right angle to that there is the miniature bowl thing, where everyone practices their fly outs.
Tom gets i-podded out more than most, usually to peculiar musak, never hearing you maybe he just doesn't want to talk to any one. An almost legal manouvre though when you can perfom perfect five o shuvs this perfect.
Old School Ricky kills the trannied section of this park with tranfers such as the bowl to bollocks on command, and of course with tats oot.
Andy White and Tom Shimmin personify skateboarding at KG. Here they double up on the biggest rail in the park with a Feeble and a Smith respectively.
Unique line from a unique lad. Andy Manny to Front Rock.
Round the corner again there’s a curvey block down some long stairs, a diagonally angled low to high block, and then more stairs than I’d care to count, some rails and stupidly low steep angled ledges down steps.
All of this encompasses a spined mini with bowled corners, a f**k load of flatground - always heavily sessioned- some ledges, flat banks, bank to blocks, a tight trannied bowled corner… and a bank to wall.
I don’t want to hate too bad on this park, it can be a really fun session and there’s always someone doing something. If I had youth further on my side I’m sure I would probably love it and not just like it. My hips prefer I walk up stairs rather than jump down them.
There’s plenty of authentic street skating to be had in Glasgow as well and if you are planning on paying a visit to Kelvingrove I’d get someone to show you some stuff.
By far the most technical variation i have seen on this spine, nice execution for having literally just been asked to try it. Varial Hizzle over the spine.
Master of Trickery Colin Kennedy with a buttery 180 fakie 5-0 on the bank to block.
Abnormal load, Street Div. Truckfest Gorilla Krooks over the hellish corner block in the earlydays.
Spot Check: Kelvingrove Skatepark
Spot Check Photography