- 1970's CA Skateparks RIP
- Marina Del Rey Skatepark - California
Marina Del Rey Skatepark - California
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General Information
- Open
Construction Info
Location
Contacts
- Private
RIP - 1978 - 1981
Marina Del Rey ranks up in skate history as one of the greats. The park had a great medium-sized Keyhole that saw some of the burliest channel jumps ever done in skateboarding (check out Devo's Freedom of Choice video). The brown bowls -- a '6 keyhole with channel and an odd-shaped capsule -- were also a favorite. One of the best banked slalom runs, a legendary Dog Bowl replica and the infamous Turning Point Ramp (complete with the instability of a trailer) make Marina one of the best. Locals included Stacy Peralta, Eric Dressen, Christian Hosoi, and Bill Dorr.
Eric Nash
Excerpt from
SKATE
The International Skating Magazine
April/may 1979
DOGPOUND
With some hot tips and heavy influence from the D. T. Boyz this park is one of the hottest pool parks around. Not to say it isn't a complete park - it features various runs set up to compensate for all levels of ability, with a large banked freestyle reservoir, small bowls, larger bowls, a half-pipe with a capsuled end and a snake. But the beauty is in the pools.
The main attraction during most heavy sessioning (like any Sunday afternoon) is the pool, which is a close copy of the infamous original "Dog Bowl," where the lines for carving are insane. In fact, the way the initial carve is set up when you first drop in will remind all the old pool freaks of the early days, when blasting around under the coping was as far as the art of backyard bowls had progressed, except that in this new pool, it's very fast.
Of course, there's a 12' x 8' keyhole next to the D-Bowl good for pulling off aerial rockette stunts and suicidal roll-ins. And at the far end of the park is a 92' x 28' keyhole for grinding away the afternoon.
Getting rad in the Dog Bowl isn't exactly disco-skating by the Rec Center in Venice. You don't just step in and shine. Your ability has to match your attitude, and your attitude has to be like the park's. During an on session it's more like the Snake Bowl, 'cause just getting down the chute is tough, especially when the Boyz - the early innovators of tooling a pool live right down the street.
The great thing about this place is that the pools s are real pools, with authentic tile and coping- they were even filled with water so the transitions wouldn't be lost in the settling and the flow would remain constant like they planned it. Speakers in the bowls for listening to bands like "The Clash" and "The Ramones" while sessioning heavily peak out the "designed-with-the skater-in-mind" concept motivating the whole scene.
Credit for the design go to designer/builder Dennis Ogden, with help from Ray Allen, who manages the park. They burned down the problem of transition and then built around it, so no bumps or weird sections got in the way, and pushed radness right up front. The achievable air is outrageous. Carving capabilities are mad. In the main pool, even the basic moves take on a new flair. The park actually accommodates and develops skaters by not crimping those who really go for it, yet not sacrificing the average and good skater. And, as more skaters utilize the entire park, the average level of ability rises.
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