This weekend (August 21st, 2010), I decided to take a day trip to Louisville, Kentucky. Originally, I'd planned to spend the weekend in Cincinnati... but rain was in the forecast, and I didn't really feel like camping out in a thunderstorm. Louisville looked like it might have better weather, so I decided to do that instead.
The strange thing is, I've gone and skated Louisville at least fifty or sixty times over the last five years or so. But I typically go late at night, or during the graveyard shift in the early morning. The reason is simple: Louisville gets stifling hot in the summer, and the park's open (and lit) 24/7! So why not take advantage of that, and avoid the crowds to boot...?! The downside is that I rarely get to experience anything else in Louisville besides the park, and I've never visited any of the local shops, either.
So without further ado, here it is! My trip, in photos...:
Here's where I began my day: Lost in Shelbyville, Kentucky at a little corner coffee shop called Sixth & Main. What I was doing, was looking for a "new" skateshop that I'd discovered in the yellow pages called Gold Skate Shop. Now, you're probably asking me right now, why wasn't I in frickin' Louisville, skating?! Oh, here's why: The second that I arrived in Louisville and opened my car door to pad up, it began to rain. Like, buckets. So, this was "Plan B"- to go looking for this shop. The coffee shop guys let me use their internet, and I thought I was good to go.
While inside, waiting on my bagel and danish, I spotted this little gem! Anyone my age will instantly recognize this as one of the first-ever Apple Macintosh desktop computers ("Macs", for short, circa 1989 or so). The guys at the shop tell me that it still works, even after all these years. Kids: This is to the modern computer, what an Atari is to the XBox.
"What's an 'Atari'?!", you ask...? Never mind... Google it.
After about an hour of driving around in circles, and asking at least ten folks for directions, I finally found "Gold Skate Shop". Or at least, the address for Gold Skateshop. But, there was no skateshop anywhere to be found. So, I went 'round back...
... and, you can always tell where the skateshops "used to be", by the random promo you'll find in the strangest of places...
... which helped me deduce that this "Gold Skateshop" place actually used to occupy the back side of the building, on the lower level. My gawd, this place must've been fucking impossible to find, even when they were in business...! Maybe that explains why they came and went so fast...
Next stop: Jeffersonville, Indiana. Note the rainwater everywhere: The weather hadn't improved much.
The park looked fun... but sort of gnarly, too...
... because of weird stuff, like this wavy-flat-bank-whatever...
... or, these extremely abrupt quarterpipes. Or, those no-run-up-stairs...
... or, the harsh kinks in those "curved" blocks...
... but, this half-bowl looked fun! Now that, is straight up my alley! Next time...
The skatepark sits right next door to Jeffersonville's "Aquatic Center", which I thought was pretty funny, given all the "Aqua" that was falling all over the goddamned place. Just my f'n luck, man.
I wondered to myself if stealing this sign would be considered "vandalizing"? Because technically, I think it'd be considered "theft". And the sign doesn't say anything about "theft". I almost swooped it, but grudgingly decided against it. I've got a big enough collection, already.
Next stop: Asylum Extreme in Clarksville. Just a few miles from Jeffersonville, and right off of the interstate.
You don't see this in many skateshops, but it's the first thing you run into at Asylum in Clarksville. Asylum is part skateshop, and part "hobby shop" that sells all sorts of radio controlled vehicles, as well as a whole arsenal of paintball weaponry.
Brandon, the shop-employee that showed me around the place. Very, very friendly bloke. Note the weaponry hanging just behind him. Asylum has a second shop on the south side of town that I didn't get to this time around, because I'm a slacker.
These days, shop decks seem to be displacing more and more of the "branded" skate market. Here, you can clearly see the "brands" all over that back wall... yet, the "shop branded boards" are right up front, and on their own towering display. I can't blame shops one bit for doing this sort of thing. Most shop decks are still USA-made (unlike the "branded" stuff that is increasingly "imported")... shop decks save the kids a few bucks... the shops are definitely a hell of a lot more "relatable" to the average kid, than some ego'd-out, multi-zillionaire pro skater... and it supports the local economy, and the local skate scene. I'm waiting for an IASC "Under Sold" report to come out, to pick up where "Under Fire" left off. If IASC hates blanks, then shop decks surely must be the next big hit on their shit list...
Close-ups of the Asylum shop decks.
I thought the whole presentation was very well-done. The shop was impeccably clean, and everything looked very organized, and very easy to navigate. And their prices were pretty rock-bottom, too. All in all, a pretty good stop.
Next stop: 120 Clay St. in Louisville, just up the street from the Louisville skatepark. I had contacts for at least three different shops that were [supposedly] occupying this address... but all I found was an animal hospital. Later, I learned from the guys at Tiny Skateshop/Riot Skatepark that the shop changed hands a bunch of times, and then went out of business. Another one bites the dust...
Ahhhhh! Heaven...! Louisville's totally epic, all-concrete wonderland. That little brown building at the upper right was my next stop, but not until I got a few runs in first...!
"Heaven", up close and personal. This shit ain't for weenies, kids.
The small side of Nirvana, where the old dudes [like me] warm up, then chill out.
Now, don't even ask me why some guy would ever think to himself, "Y'know, Louisville's a pretty okay park and all... but dude, it just wouldn't be complete without a little bit of DIY fixing-upping!" This little DIY project was on the outside of a fucking 24-foot-tall, concrete fullpipe for pete's sakes! As if that's just not enough for ya, huh...?!?!
The vert ramp's showing it's age, but it's still a jewel...
This is a pretty crappy picture of Adrenaline Zone, the bike/skate shop right across the street from the skatepark. I got interrupted by some lady, asking me if I was the landlord.
And, here's the lady! Tina Scoggins, the wife of Adrenaline Zone's owner, Chris. She was so totally super-friendly once I explained I wasn't a landlord or a spy, that we totally hung out and had a chat for about half an hour. Just, a super-awesome person. One of the nicest people I've met in quite some time.
This is Chris (Tina's husband, on the left) and Adam (their employee, on the right). Just like Tina, they're both totally hospitable and friendly guys. While Tina and Chris were packing up to make an appointment, Adam showed me around the maze of the place, which led to:
An indoor mini ramp! Three feet on one side, four feet on the other side, and about ten to twelve feet wide. Free to skate for loyalist customers, and just a couple bucks for non-customers. That's a pretty interesting incentive to shop locally, right there.
The well-stocked board room. This is only about half of the decks- the rest are out of frame, to the right.
I see a lot of funny shit out on the road. This is the latest offering from Superior Skateboards... a new brand out of the Dwindle camp. I guess they've finally figured out that boobs sell skateboards. Especially barely-restrained boobs with bikini lines. The Chinese dudes that make 'em must've had a grand 'ol time heat-transferring these...
I always like to see some "diversity" in the skateshops that I visit, and this rack full of Chubby- and Fatty-equipped GFH Pygmies immediately caught my eye. It's nice to see GFH stepping up their wheel program, and flaunting 'em on their pre-assembled completes. Now, I want one!
Before he took off with Tina, Chris kindly gave me "easier-to-use" directions over to Home Skateshop on Bardstown Road. Bardstown Road cuts through Louisville's Highlands arts-and-culture district, and has a really "bohemian" feel to it. It was kind of rad, although the traffic totally sucked ass. Luckily, I swooped a parking space right in front of Home... and was immediately taken aback by the kick-ass, totally literal "home" theme of the shop.
Inside, the shop is extremely welcoming, beautifully finished, and logically organized. It just might be one of the most aesthetically engaging skateshops that I've ever walked into, in my entire life. No joke, shit, or foolin'.
Everything here screams "quality", and "attention to the smallest of little details". These guys clearly take a lot of pride in their shit.
I've never seen so many shoes in one space, in my entire life. This place was bursting at the seams with shoes. Probably because the owner (Thom Hornung) is the ex-Fallen-rep, current-Vans-rep for the midwest. He who works for shoe companies, clearly has no problem getting shoes...!
A pretty funny "cruiser" concept from the boyz at Deathwish. If you had a Creature "Bruekiller" handy, you could probably bust the nose right off this thing.
Okay, wait... I think I get it? You take the bottle, jam it into the deck... and yank the cap off? You'd better show me just one more time, because I'm still a little bit fuzzy...
After I drooled around Home for a while, it was time to zoom off to Riot Skatepark and Tiny Skateshop, which are in the industrial park that sits right off of I-64's Exit 15. In this pic, the shop is the door in front of the white station wagon; the park takes up the rest of the wing.
Almost there...
And here's the owner of the place! Gimme a week or so to track down his name, because I'm old and can't remember shit anymore. Cool cat, though! I remember that much, fersure!
There's also a skatepark in the building- that's Riot- but I got there so early that they hadn't turned on the lights yet, or opened it up. There's a small two or two-and-a-half-foot spined mini in there, though, that's about 12 or 16 feet wide. It looks like a shit-ton of fun. I would've loved to have skated it, but I didn't wanna piss off the neighbors or anything. Oh well, there's always 'next time'...
New Albany, Indiana. From the flood berm on the riverbank, it looks like a cool little scene.
And at first glance, the skatepark doesn't even look too shabs, either.
But, on closer inspection... things aren't entirely as they seemed, from a distance.
These stairs looked pretty legit, and those flat banks were pretty fun. But the park is old, and it's showing its age.
Now don't ask me why the parks department would cut out a handrail, but leave the rusty nubs sticking up out of the concrete. It's like, they just replaced a clear and present "safety hazard" with another, fully obscure (and even worse) hazard. It's easy enough to avoid an obvious handrail, but these nubs could easily become killers. Why they left the other handrail intact, is wholly beyond logic.
This short, hella wide quarterpipe was kinda fun, but totally gnar at the same time.
Note how the "coping" is set into the lip, so that when you grind, you're more than likely grinding the concrete under that fat, steel coping, instead of on it. Sketchy...!! But, fun nonetheless...
Homeward bound at the end of the day. Until next time, guys...
