Ocean Beach Skatepark (Robb Field) - Ocean Beach, California, U.S.A.

(1/04) - Ocean Beach, aka Robb Field skatepark, is one of the largest parks in SoCal, spanning almost an acre of land. It was built long before the recent trend of big country tranny parks, which explains the very disappointing 5-foot maximum height here. In fact, while still on my extended skating sabbatical, I drove by this park with my wife and exclaimed: "What kind of skatepark is that? Are those bowls made for munchkins?" For street-oriented skaters having tranny skills, this park is a 9. Crusty vert and bowl riders will suffer from major league buzz kill and this park is at best a 4 for those types of skaters. Frankly, Clairemont and Coronado are much better for the Concrete Disciples crowd, and both are only a short drive away from this park. Site Design Group designed this park, and it features their usual assortment of rails, ledges, quarter pipes, a volcano, a pyramid, and a wide open street course. The mini bowl section is very fun: two long sections connected by a spine, plenty of hips, and metal coping all around. The downside is the shallow depth, which is exactly the same all over the bowl complex. I don't know who did the concrete finish work, but it's very rough on the transitions. No lights. - Takahashi