Anyone remember the skatepark behind Springfield Mall. How about the one off Wheeler Ave behind the McDonalds off Duke St, down the street from where the Alex City skatepark sits today. It had a real pool with tile & coping.

For die hard skaters you'll remember having to drive to MD when Ocean City MD had the only real park, "The Bowl" with a small and large version. On the way there was an asphalt park in Salisbury, MD. And somewhere in Gaithersburg there was a great park with steep walls and a smooth Gunite pool surface.

And off rt 95 at the Burtonsville exit there was an awesome intersection of drainage ditches with grafitti called "Stillwaves" The highway dept eventually sabotaged it with rocks and asphalt.

This is way before Tony Hawk of course. Skaters today probably don't know the 70's was huge and how skateboarding went into a coma in the 80's. I guess now its bigger then ever.

I remember there was a skateboard shop over in Shirlington nearby where Best used to be at.

CCCC had one - built by the son of the owner. Cedar Crest Country Club, that is...

The Mall Wall was the name.

The Mall Wall was cool! It had 2 snake runs, a baby bowl and a street run in the middle. This place was open in the late 70's and in the early 80's.

Now Cedar Crest was a kick ass half pipe. That ramp was at least 40 feet wide, 15 feet tall and was cover with metal. It was so fast and slick that skaters would spray cans of coke on the ramp for traction.

http://www.skatecccc.com/

I was born in 1972 in Pasadena Ca. The skate park I remember (first one I remember) was the "Boogie Bowl" in La Crescenta Ca. Anyone remember or heard of it. We also used to go to "pipline in Upland, Ca. When I was 14 I remember seeing Tony hawk riding the "Combi Bowl".

By the way, thank you Dog Town! You guys gave all us kids born in the 70's something to dream of!!

this documentary about psycho killer and pro skater mark 'gator' rogowski is a great film about how skateboarding was in a coma in the 80's. or maybe you were in a coma. i forget....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271211/combined

Tony Alva Wrote:
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>
> This is way before Tony Hawk of course. Skaters
> today probably don't know the 70's was huge and
> how skateboarding went into a coma in the 80's. I
> guess now its bigger then ever.

I can't speak for the 70's but I had a GREAT time at Cedar Crest back in the day. Every weekend there was the rumor that Bad Brains would play live. Does anyone else remember Chicken Butt? It was in Fairfax Station/ Clifton area? I do remember the guys always talking about skating the snake lines behind Springfield Mall, never went. Oh well. Maybe I'll try to find "The Search for Animal Chin" tonight and relive the glory days. Also, my personal favorites back then were Lance Mountain and Danny Way. My boyfriend had a half pipe and I always tried my hardest to impress him with my skater knowledge, lol. Ahh, what memories...

The skate park behind springfield mall took many a layers of skin off my knees back in the day.. Good memories with the scars to prove it :)

Me and Bruce Adams grew up together in No.Va. We met Mark Hooper in 7th grade, his father owned cedar crest. He had a sketchy ramp in his backyard in Falls Church. A-Town was a ramp in the woods behind some kids house in annandale. That"s where we met Micro. When A-Town shut down, the need arose for a new spot, and Hooper"s dad stepped up BIG!! CCCC ruled! Skateworld was in Alexandria.

Skateboarding was not a fad in the 70s. It came in later. 80s or 90s???

The A-town ramp you are referring to, is that the one that was on Wakefield Chapel Road at Georgian Way? Remember hanging there as a young kid. Sill have some great pictures of Doug and PUker doing inverts with me at 10 years old standing on the coping. Good times

Skated all parks and pools during the 70's miller school Paul revere miss the old days don Hamilton good to see you out ther still remember brand park 71?

Remember this one in Alexandria?

Mall wall in Springfield was pretty good. Where are the good skateparks now? Im a little too old to be real good but I might get my old Krytonic skateboard out.

Skateboarding in Mt. Vernon in the 70's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_iYWcw8498

x Wrote:
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> The A-town ramp you are referring to, is that the
> one that was on Wakefield Chapel Road at Georgian
> Way? Remember hanging there as a young kid. Sill
> have some great pictures of Doug and PUker doing
> inverts with me at 10 years old standing on the
> coping. Good times


I lived over there off of Wakefield Chapel near Pappas Way in the 70's. Went to Chapel Square, got my Skateboard at Drug Fair in Ravensworth. LOL.

Had urethane wheels, that's all that mattered.

here's the pool at Skateworld circa 1978. If anyone has photos of skatworld, post 'em here! I skated Annandale ramp as well. Never made it to the Mall Wall....That photo someone posted above is some modern park. Where is it exactly?
Attachments:

Skated CCCC, franconia ditch, chicken butt, and various 1/2 pipes we made or other people built. Anyone ever go to Tommy Cook's ramp in the Plains, VA? That was a property owned by Jack Kent Cook and his grandson built a 24' (could be 18') wide 12' hi 1/2 pipe and had a 4' hi 24' wide 1/2 pipe next to it with a snake run.

My favorite places were Mt. Trashmore in VA beach and

Lansdowne skatepark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCIEgf1oEQo

Sadly, a non-skate related fractured vertebra ended the fun for me in 1996.

There used to be one in Manassas of of 234 behind the current Suntrust bank building across from Dudley Martin Chevrolet.

I've always wanted to open an indoor skatepark but not sure since vans closed down. With so many outdoor parks now it would be hard to compete. How many people would be open to it since we only have one that's in woodbridge. It definitely would be bad ass. I grew up in the 8os and used to skate cedar crest etc. I know how to build em.

Chapel Square......I lived on Pappas Way in 70's and 80's and went to Chapel Square from K-6th grade

Atown and cherry hill nj were the legends that spawned cccc, as a skater that was there from the start god bless all of us that pioneered the east coast skate culture, the mall wall, ocean city and the other parks inspired us be pirates,gorillas,trespassers and punks to build a-town and the steel monster at cccc. Micro pushed me to skate harder and introduced be to the best music, oh how I miss the the a-town sessions...

Glad to have found your site. I live and work in Alexandria now but grew up in nearby Falls Church and skated at both Skateworld and the Mall Wall back in 1977, ’78, 79 and ’80 I think. I don’t have any photos but do have other mementos from those 2 parks and others including Skateworld and Mall Wall T-shirts, a Skateworld contest poster, Skateworld letterhead, newspaper ads and many skateboard articles from those years. I was in school studying graphic design back then and ended up doing some graphic work for the parks, designing the Skateworld skatepark logo, the Mall Wall skatepark logo and a logo for the St. Charles Skatepark out in Waldorf, MD. I still have all of the original art for those logos as well as copies of some print ads, their letterhead and even a business card for Dan “The Wildman” Resendes, one of the owners of Skateworld if I recall. I also have reprints of a skateboard poster that I printed up and marketed back then. After the Mall Wall briefly closed in 1978, it was bought by Skateworld and re-opened. Skateworld was located at 3700 Wheeler Ave. in Alexandria. None of the old park still exists, a building is there now with the Child & Family Network Center.

Back in 2002 and 2003 I worked with the community group here in Alexandria pushing the city to build the first public skatepark. I designed the logo for that skatepark, designed the park T-shirt, ads, flyers, stickers, banners, etc. samples of all of which I still have. That park opened in 2003 and is still open and appears to be doing well.

I have recently been looking back at this old skatepark material as a new skateboard shop has recently opened in Alexandria, “Dust Farm Custom Skateboards”, 1608 King St. The owner has some classic and vintage skateboard memorabilia around his shop. We were thinking of putting out a new T-shirt that reprints the logos and some information about the old Alexandria area skateparks from the 1970s-80’s. As I recall, all of the area skateparks, Skateworld, Mall Wall and the St. Charles skatepark, were all closed by about 1981, but I don’t know exactly when they all closed. (Or when they officially opened either)

So If anyone has photos or any other material about any of those skateparks, I would be interested. There were also 2 other skateparks in this area in the late 1970s-early 80s but that I wasn’t involved with, Skateboarding U.S.A which was out W. 66, off Suddly Rd., and Freestyle Skatepark of Rt. 355 in Fredrick, MD. I only skated there once in the early 1980s,

For any material about these former Washington DC, northern Virginia skateparks, please contact me. Brian Marquis at Brian@MarquisGraphicDesign.com 703 519-7916.

are those pictures from California tax dodgers skating ?

they aren't from any part of fairfax except maybe some hidden part of annandle or alexandria few knew about

MOST of fairfax , in the 1970's, had ...

HORSE TRAILS

and i thought California, who started that bullshit, didn't get "commercial skate parks" till the end of the 1980's

wow maybe i should be looking for skate park photos in black and white huh ?

Fairfax people should quit talking about other parts of the country because they clearly dont know shit about any place else.

Thought you all might be interested in this. This is a T-shirt design we're thinking of for a new skateboard shop in Alexandria. A little of the old and the new with showing the logos from the former 1970's parks from around the Alexandria area, along with the logo for the new public Alexandria skatepark that was opened in 2003. The new shop, Dust Farm Custom Skateboards (818)730-6647, 1608 King St.,recently opened after the owner moved back this area after having lived and skated in California for many years. If you think this is something that you think people might be interested in, let us know. Also shown is a skateworld contest poster from 1978 and a Skateworld newsletter also from 1978.
Brian Marquis
Brian@MarquisGraphicDesign.com
703 519-7916
Attachments:

Cedar Crest memorial day jams! Great bands as well.

Lansdowne Bowl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvR8_VZWw6w

Skated Alexandria Skate World, The Mall Wall and Ravensworth drainage ditch (located at Braddock road next to the on ramp for the beltway) Anybody have a picture of that ditch? Destroyed my knee at Mt. Trashmore and pretty much ended my skating days on walls, just cruising from then on out....

still skating lansdowne. tried york, frederick, olney, oc. prefer old school like lansdowne. anywhere else left like itr?

Old school in skate boarding was when you could not buy a skateboard, you had to build it.

You took a 1X6 plank about 2 feet long, one steel wheel roller skate and a few sheet metal screws. Split the roller skate and screw them to the board. Be sure to keep the other roller skate so you'd have spare wheels. Those steel wheels wore down in no time on the concrete.

would be cool. any progress since 2014?

STOP REVIVING DECADE OLD THREADS NO ONE CARES ABOUT

any fool knows that skateboarders get injured and that fairfax county would claim the owner LIABLE in court, and the first injury would be asian, nigger, or hispanic and close the place

shut the fuck up

Born and raised in Duke St. Lived on S Hudson right near Wheeler Ave. I would love some T’s and stickers. I know this was some time ago that you posted this but worth a shot. I knew the owner of the skate shop on Duke about 10 years ago. Wonder if it’s the same guys I went to TC with. Feel free to contact me.

Bump for the new year. Keep the memories alive people. I missed the reunion but skated Landsdowne a few times last year. I still visit Burgundy Village, Bush Hill, Wilton Woods, Franconia, Springfield regularly and get out with my Alva board to push around the old neighborhoods occasionally. Still fun!

~ Edison/83 John

Chris Shato had a huge half pipe off rolling road!
Good times!

Also, there was a guy named “VIG” near mt Vernon/ft hunt area that had a huge half pipe. His dad owned the publishing company for the “blade” and other paper newspapers.
Maybe it was “Tig”
Can’t remember bc of too much pot!

I don't believe that skateparks existed anywhere around here in the 1970s.

I think skateboarding didn't get popular like that until about 1981.

Best skate park in the '70 was in Manassas behind the Hub furniture. Corner of Sudley Rd and Ben Lomond Dr.

In the 80's it was "the ditch" off Rolling Rd in Springfield. I became friends with Dave Groll there.

Grohl.

Burgundy John Wrote:
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> Bump for the new year. Keep the memories alive
> people. I missed the reunion but skated Landsdowne
> a few times last year. I still visit Burgundy
> Village, Bush Hill, Wilton Woods, Franconia,
> Springfield regularly and get out with my Alva
> board to push around the old neighborhoods
> occasionally. Still fun!
>
> ~ Edison/83 John



I still try to occasionally downhill during the warm weather months. Modern board shapes suck. I prefer going down hills on the larger 1980s boards.

Cool vision deck! Still looking for ditch skating spots in the dc area.

Go to a skatepark today and it's full of brown things and LOTS of gangs. If there are any white pee-po, they usually spend hours trying to land the same trick on video for their Youtube channel.

The America we knew is gone. We got to live the last, best decades of it. If millennials had any idea what they've been denied and what they've been sold, they'd be burning the world down.

Who remembers the name of Sk8 shop in Fair City Mall mid 70’s? Tennis as well

Was 20-25 wide. 12 feet.

Hiiiii guys.......... how are you all?

Salut, très bien!