Desert West Skateboard Plaza - Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.

"This park regularly hosts the PHXAM Skateboard Tournament and has been featured by ESPN. The facility features 25,000 square feet of terrain with curbs, steps with steel ledges, bumps, hips, a fun box and three bowls. The park also has water fountains and shade structures. It is open only to skateboarders." - From the phoenix.gov website Desert West is probably the most famous of all the Phoenix area skateparks, and does rank among the very best that the city has to offer. The site of the annual Phoenix Am contest, the sponsor logos remain painted on the obstacles all year 'round; the oververt section of the bowl was also the setting of a recent Concrete Wave Magazine cover. The park itself covers 26,000 square feet of site. Consisting of an excellent, buttery-smooth concrete "street" area with more obstacles than I could ever describe here, and a massive, left-hand faux kidney that features an oververt clamshell in the shallow end, and an eye-popping mural that completely covers every square inch of the bowl, this park is a skater's dream come true. The layers of paint are the secret ingredient; the park has the perfect balance of speed and grip almost anywhere you go. It's well worth the trip from almost anywhere; if that's not enough, the Phoenix Metro Area features another twenty (or so) skateparks that will more than satisfy your appetite for concrete. The Phoenix Am is on march 25th and 26th this year (2018); make a weekend of it, and come on down. -Bud Stratford, Everything Skateboarding/Concrete Disciples, February 2018